


Unexpected Reaction

by TrinesRUs



Series: Chasing Dani [1]
Category: Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Multi, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Xeno, crack ship, sexual themes and mentions but no actual sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 46,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1823011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrinesRUs/pseuds/TrinesRUs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chase is unable to comprehend where this emotional reaction is coming from. Dani is just confused. Heatwave would sooner give up rescue missions than confess. Kade pretends not to care. Hilarity ensues.</p><p>NOTICE: The first fourteen chapters take place pre-Changes, but chapters fifteen and on will take place after that episode. Major canon divergence starting chapter twenty-two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Opposites Attract

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuse for this other than the fact that Bots and Robbers made me joke-ship Chase/Dani and that this idea made me laugh. And my plans for Heatwave and Kade made my sister cry. Which made me laugh.
> 
> If the style switches with POV, that's intentional. If the style fails to remain consistent within a specific character's POV, that's my fault and should be pointed out.
> 
> I love free indirect speech. I have no clue why I keep typing in present-tense, though.

            Chase does not understand attraction, especially in humans, for the longest while. That much should be evident from the way he reacted to Chief Burns’ “blush,” as he learned it is called. It is not that he was unaware of the concept; contrary to popular belief, he does understand much of emotion, even if it still finds ways to baffle him sometimes.

            Also opposed to what many have assumed, it is not that he does not understand fun. His definition of what constitutes fun is simply vastly different from others’ (with the exception of snow, perhaps). He finds his profession highly enjoyable. It is part of why he is able to perform it well. But the sort of fun that others seem to derive from attraction seems to him a messy way to spend energy with no functional purpose—pure inefficiency, not fun.

But for much of that time, he felt no fear of falling into that inefficiency. It seemed that the Allspark had seen fit to match his business-like demeanor with a lack of that particular urge. Just as well that it did, too. He would have no use for such distractions while on duty.

            It is very much to his surprise, then, when he glances down at Dani one day and finds his spark-pulse suddenly spiking. There is nothing out of the ordinary about her. There is merely the setting sun’s light glancing off her skin and hair as the whole team stood on the pier after another successful mission. He had always seen the red tones in her chestnut hair, but here, they practically glow. In fact, there is a certain iridescent quality to her entire form.

            He is snapped out of his trance by Boulder elbowing him in the back. “You okay, Chase? Your spark-pulse is off the charts.”

            There is a pause, short but just long enough to be noticeable, before he can respond at all. “I—I—I—I,” he stammers. “Yes, I am functioning normally.”

            Boulder’s look is skeptical; Blades’ is worried, and Heatwave wears a smug smile. Regardless, there is a silent agreement all around to discuss it later. Away from the humans.

~----------~

            Dani senses something off about the ‘Bots when they turn to head back to the Firehouse, but they all purposefully dodge her questions. For some reason, Chase looks like he’s avoiding looking at her. It has her staring suspiciously, but she doesn’t have much time to consider it before he transforms to give the Burns’ father and Cody their ride back.

            Before long, things start to return to normal as Kade and Heatwave begin bickering. Something about Kade having had the situation under control and not needing Heatwave’s help and how Kade should be grateful that Heatwave stepped in when he did. Really, she’s sure at this point that Kade just starts these to convince himself he hasn’t grown attached to his partner. Heatwave is too stubborn not to be easily provoked.

            That won’t distract her from her curiosity for too long, though. She turns to Blades’ interior screen. “You’ve been awfully quiet,” she prods. “Have anything to share?”

            “Just, uh, trying not to focus on how far away the ground is?” he offers weakly.

            “Uh-huh,” she replies. “You seemed to be getting over that fear pretty well from what I can tell. At least enough not to be silenced by it.” Maybe a change in tactic is in order. “Is everything all right with Chase?”

            “Whaaaaat?” he asks in the lilt of an obvious lie. “He’s perfectly fine! What would make you think otherwise?” At that moment, Chase made a small swerve before correcting himself. On the screen, Blades gives his pilot a sheepish grin.

            Dani cocks an eyebrow and shoots him a look that clearly says she doesn’t believe him, but she doesn’t question further. If the ‘Bots were trying to hide something, it’s probably for good reason. Just as long as whatever it is fixes itself soon, before it becomes a danger to the team, she could let it slide.

~----------~

            Chase, uncharacteristically restless, paces around the bunker. Out of earshot of the humans, the Autobots have the freedom to discuss the very personal matter of their law-enforcement member’s reaction to the Burns female, but starting the conversation is slow-going. Heatwave leans against the wall, the same smirk back in place. Blades stands just far enough out of the way of Chase’s pacing, twiddling his fingers.

            It is Boulder who finally breaks the silence. “Your systems were putting out weird readings back there, Chase. Your E.M. field flared, your optics got kind of dim and unfocused, your core temperature rose a few degrees, and your spark-pulse was higher than normal. It still hasn’t slowed back down completely.”

            “I cannot surmise the disturbance. I have been running full-system scans, but I cannot detect any known virus.” It does not show well in his expression, but he is beginning to grow frustrated. There is an obvious answer, but it is one he is very unwilling to accept. “Boulder, could you run a more thorough diagnostic?” He may not be a medic, but the powerhouse is as close to one as they have.

            “I can try.”

            “No need, Boulder,” says Heatwave before the bulldozer can act. “I know exactly what Chase’s problem is. I saw the way he was looking at Dani. Raised temperature? Unfocused optics? His spark-pulse? Accept it; Chase wants to interface with her.”

            The police car’s optics widen. “P-preposterous! You have those precise symptoms when you argue with Kade,” he retorts.

            Heatwave splutters with shock. “My heat goes up out of anger, and my processor doesn’t hiccup around him like yours started doing.”

            “Um, guys,” Blades cuts in. “Are we really considering this as an option? This is _Dani_ and _Chase_ we’re talking about. Chase is all rules and formalities, and Dani is all adventure and taking risks. I mean, she’s not the most reckless of humans or anything, but she’s a little too outside the lines for him.”

            He could point out plainly that all of their jobs as rescuers entail a certain degree of risk and that, while he would never intentionally seek them out, he does enjoy assignments that allow him to drive at high speed. But Blades is “on his side,” as it is, so he keeps the thought to himself.

            Boulder hums thoughtfully before responding, “I don’t know. Graham told me a human saying, ‘Opposites attract.’ Perhaps that applies here.”

            “No way. Chase can’t possibly feel that way about my human. They don’t talk to each other enough to form that kind of connection. Why all of the sudden?”

            Chase wonders that himself. He recalls in his experience imitating the detective films Cody lent him that he had narrated Dani’s entrance in much the same way the hero would introduce an aesthetically pleasing female. It could potentially be residual emotion from the act of pretending for the sake of broadening his technique repertoire. However, if that is the case, then the feelings would have originated from that moment, not today, would they not?

            Unable to come up with a reasonable answer, Chase says, “Boulder, Graham did not happen to tell you that saying in reference to Kade and Hayley, did he?” It is a dangerous action, but hopefully it would pull the attention off of him and direct it towards Heatwave.

            Judging from the way the fire truck’s core temperature amplifies and his fists clench, it works. “I’m going for a walk in the tunnels,” he grumbles, turning away.

            The questions drop when Heatwave leaves, to Chase’s relief.

~----------~

            At the Burns’ dinner table, though, the conversation is only about to start. Dani pushes her mashed potatoes around her plate with her fork. A deep frown is etched on her face as she stares intensely down at her food.

            “I’ve always found it does more good when you eat it than when you play with it,” Chief Burns says. It’s mostly playful, but there is a certain pointed edge to it.

            With a small sigh, Dani takes a scoop of potato. “Anyone else notice something up with the ‘Bots today?” She finally does take a bite of her food after speaking.

            “Boulder mainly seemed quiet more than anything, but I did find that a little odd, I guess,” replies Graham. He moves his textbook away from his face long enough to shovel some peas into his mouth.

            “But something was definitely wrong with Chase. He’s normally really focused, but he was distracted a lot of the drive home.” Cody, much like Dani, is only eating one bite of food for every three forkfuls he turns over. He’s probably more worried about this than even she is.

            In agreement, their father adds, “He almost seemed to be embarrassed about something.”

            “You wouldn’t notice it if you aren’t used to him, but it was definitely there.”

            “He was shorter with his answers when he would supply them, and you all saw the way he was driving.” By this point, Kade is the only one still eating, and he’s determinedly not looking at the rest of the family. “I’m worried about him and what this could mean for the team.”

            “Blades was pretty evasive about things, too. He knows something, but he’s not telling me what. I want to wait and see if they sort things out themselves, but…I’m worried, too.”

            There is a moment of silence around the table until they hear a grinding noise coming from the end. “Um, Kade?”

            He stops scraping the plate with his knife, but continues glowering at the table instead of looking at the rest of them. “Oh boo, your ‘Bots are acting weird. Well, today was the first time in a while Heatwave’s actually acted normal.”

            “Careful, Kade,” Dani snips. “Someone might think you care.”

            He turns his glare on her before throwing his utensils down. “May I be excused?”

            Their father looks like he’s about to reprimand him, but slowly deflates. “Yeah, sure,” he answers quietly.

            It isn’t until after Kade leaves the room that they notice he hadn’t actually continued eating so much as cut, mash, and squash his food all into brown, mushy goop. The Burns patriarch sighs at the waste of food but says nothing.

~----------~

            The more he ran the memory over and over again in his processor, the less it made sense. The absence of a frame of reference for this attraction is certainly a factor, but it cannot be the sole reason for his confusion.

            Chase saw all of the others in the sunlight, so why was it only _her_ appearance that had such a striking effect on him? He could not excuse it on her gender as a human could do because Cybertronians have no such concept. Nor would her form alone achieve it; while Cybertronians lack gender, there are still more than a few with a general frame-shape that could be compared to that of Dani, Hayley, or several other of the females they have encountered on Earth.

            Perhaps if he ignores it, it will fade into nonexistence. A feeling so strange and illogical surely could not last. He would learn to deal with it until then. His sense of duty, if nothing else, would force him to.

            He is still awake when Heatwave returns from his walk, but he pretends to be recharging.


	2. Hide and Seek

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heatwave is tsundere as frag. Kade totally isn't worried about anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter wasn't named after the Imogen Heap song, but you can bet your sweet ass that I ended up listening to several Imogen Heap/Frou Frou songs after naming this chapter. This is also about when I decided that every chapter would be named after a song (either one appropriate to the chapter or one that just happened to have a title that fit).

            The reality is that Chase is hitting way too close to the truth, and he knows it. They all probably know it. Heatwave hasn’t exactly been subtle about his jealousy over Hayley. He just hates everything about the way he feels.

            It’s not that he thinks he should be happy for Kade. On the contrary, it’s feeling anything but contempt for him that’s so awful. When he started to feel a sense of camaraderie between them, it was embarrassing enough, but at least then the team had the good sense to keep quiet about it. Hurt struck pretty soon after he realized that what he feels could be changing into lust—or worse, love. He didn’t need his shame thrown in his face on top of that.

            Walking probably will only help a little, but at least it would get him away from Chase. He could burn some angry energy, too. Hitting the training post would be better, but that would involve going back, and he is not prepared to do that just yet. Besides, he’s almost certain that the increase of his training time since _those particular_ emotions developed has made them at least a little suspicious.

            So a walk would have to do. His headlights curl around the nooks and crannies of the cave walls in interesting ways. The further he goes, though, the more his thoughts wander back to that day when they thought for sure the lava would kill them. When Kade first started to earn his respect by standing by his partner’s side.

            Of course.

~----------~

            Kade lies on his bed and stares at the ceiling, but it’s a fight to keep still. He feels completely restless and unable to relax, but he can’t be around the others right now. They might start to notice something and start to worry about him, and that’s not their job.

            Of course he’d noticed the ‘Bots acting weird. All of them except Heatwave. Like he said, the mech has been acting weird for a while, in these minor ways that only someone with a lot of exposure to the jerk could notice. He should be glad that the truck-former is being himself again—not that he cared about him or anything, whatever Dani might think—but the very fact that he seemed back to normal while the others were being screwy was troubling in and of itself.

            What if something really is wrong with the ‘Bots? Something out of their control. They don’t seem too keen on sharing, and he doesn’t like that. He doesn’t like danger he doesn’t know he can stop, and danger he knows he _can’t_ is even worse. This is something that fits the former but has way too much potential to turn into the latter. And if his family got caught up in the middle of it, he would have no way to protect them.

            He pulls the pillow out from under his head and presses it over his face.

~----------~

            Heatwave groans into the wall of rock he’s pressed his face into. He knows he can’t actually physically go back to the place where it happened without going up to the surface first; the opening is too narrow for him to fit from this side of the tunnel intersection even if he wanted to. It hasn’t stopped him from _mentally_ going there.

            Revisiting old memories of the exact issue he’s been trying to avoid.

            He tries to push those thoughts out of his helm. He couldn’t let them stop him from his walk. He was still too worked up to go back now and face the others. His outing being cut short would only bring up questions he definitely isn’t prepared to answer, and he would still be antsy and itching to do something if he didn’t channel his energy somewhere. But until he can get his processor away from… _that_ , he is stuck here.

            Getting back to his walk takes time. For all the irritation it causes, at least it keeps him away from the other Rescue Bots for a little longer. When he can continue, though, the outing does some good. Some of the tension melts from his frame with every few steps. Heatwave can’t cool down completely, but his anger ebbs enough to let him head back.

            By the time he returns, the others are recharging—minus Boulder, who is on nightshift with Graham. He isn’t there when Heatwave steps into the bunker, so he assumes the duo got called out on an emergency. Not that he’s complaining. It means one less witness to put up with.

            He finds a spot away from the other two to power down for the night. It takes longer than usual for his systems to idle, but he eventually manages it. His night doesn’t get easier to deal with when he does.

~----------~

            It’s one of those nights when Kade is tempted to try to switch shift with his family, but he learned his lesson after the gremlins fiasco. Mostly. The nightmares are gone, but that doesn’t stop the anxiety from hitting him some nights. It happens more rarely these days, but it still happens sometimes.

            He waits as long as he can manage before slipping out of bed and quietly going to the kitchen. Graham is there, but looks like he’s just about to leave. “Kade?”

            “Just getting a glass of water,” he lies. “Go on.”

            Graham’s forehead crinkles in something like thought or concern, but he nods and heads on out to get Boulder. Once he’s out of sight, Kade gets the milk out of the fridge and grabs a mug from the cabinet.

            “Kade?”

            Cody’s voice startles him, but he manages not to drop anything. “You have the weirdest ability to tell when I’m not sleeping, squirt,” he says with the smallest of laughs. He turns around, and his heart wrenches when he notices the worried expression on his little brother’s face. Ah jeez, he really didn’t want that. “Just warming up some milk; I’m not taking over for Graham.”

            Relief softens the kid’s expression some. “Oh. Can I have some, too?”

            “Sure thing.” He gets a second mug, pours milk into both, and then sticks them into the microwave. When they come out, he hands one to Cody, ruffles his blond hair, and sends him back to bed. Kade takes his own mug back to his room and sits on the edge of his bed, sipping at his drink.

            It helps more than he was really expecting. It brings back tender memories of being comforted as a child, back in the days when he was still able to accept help without too much insistence. Calm washes over him, and he is able to fall into a tranquil sleep filled with dreams of happy, safe family and ‘Bots acting like themselves and Hayley…Brilliant, beautiful, sweet Hayley…

~----------~

            _Heatwave finds himself back in the tunnel. No, he finds himself back in that moment. Kade is right by his side, staring down the lava that could roast him so easily. The determination in the human’s eyes makes him smile involuntarily. Refusal to abandon a partner in danger. Bravery or stupidity, it’s just the kind of attitude he likes._

_But something shifts. At first it just looks weird, like seeing things through the steam that hasn’t—couldn’t possibly have—formed just yet. Blades hasn’t dropped the water, or it hasn’t reached them yet._

_When the obstruction clears from his vision, he hears a cry, and, suddenly,_ she’s _standing behind them. The moment Kade sees Hayley, Heatwave can see the change in his behavior. Now, it’s less bravely standing by his partner and more acting heroic to impress_ her _._

_“Hayley! You need to get out of here. I can handle this,” he says. There’s a smarminess to his tone that has Heatwave bristling like there are microscraplets under his dermal plating. Kade wraps an arm around her and pulls her through the small gap in the rocks. “Head down that ladder. I’ll be right behind you.”_

_“Kade!” Heatwave calls after them, but it’s too late. The fireman’s head is disappearing behind the ridge of rock. He can’t follow them, and the blazing lava is closing in. He can almost feel his frame beginning to melt on the outside, conducting heat inward rapidly and frying his circuitry._

            He’s pulled out of the stasis-vision with a shock. “What was that?” he finds himself muttering aloud. Cybertronians don’t have nightmares, as far as he knows, and yet here he is. His systems are thrumming with fear and his spark is slightly erratic.

It felt all too real, but it wasn’t even close. That’s not how things went. Kade was more of a jerk then, but Hayley wasn’t there, and if it _did_ happen again, he wouldn’t leave Heatwave alone to die after all they’ve gone through. Kade isn’t _that_ much of a schmuck.

It’s still several minutes before he can relax again.


	3. I Try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chase isn't at the top of his game. The family notices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And in other news, I can't Evan and Myles well. They are deceptively hard characters to write.

            Chase turns the corner a little more sharply than he or the Chief would typically prefer, but it was a necessity, due to the most recent scheme from Evan and Myles. The duo had gotten their hands on a serum that increased their speed and strength. Of course, they resolved immediately to use this ability to steal a gold-plated statue of a griffin from the museum.

            Cody’s voice filters through the comm.-line. “Dani, Blades, there’s a bridge up ahead. Can you cut them off there?”

            “On it!”

            The Rescue Bots’ unofficial SIC purposefully tries to ignore the flutter in his tanks at the sound of her voice and keeps pushing forward. There is a pair of habitual law-breakers to stop, and now is not an occasion to be diverted.

            Even at his top speed, he cannot seem to catch up to them. In addition, driving at such velocity makes steering safely more difficult. The human criminals can make a much more varied range of maneuvers. Chase is the speediest of the Rescue Bots generally, but even he can barely follow them. It is only the luck of which direction air support is flying in from that allows Dani and Blades to form a blockade in front of the bridge before the bandits arrive.

            They cannot reach a high enough speed to run up and over the barrier, but that does not prevent them from turning off of their original path at the sight of it. Unfortunately, Chase has to slam on the brakes so they do not go barreling right into the solid obstruction. Chief Burns throws his arms instinctively over his face, bracing for the potential crash. They manage to avoid one, but by a hair.

            Blades crouches down, but Chase can barely hear what he says because Dani’s hands are on him and his engine revs involuntarily. “Are you okay?” she asks.

            “A little shaken up, but I’m fine,” her father says before turning his attention to the screen expectantly.

            Chase reboots his optics and attempts to suppress his unwanted reaction to the physical contact. “Operating under normal parameters.”

            The helicopter looks as though he is about to say something, but Dani turns towards him suddenly. “Blades, copter mode. We need to track them back down.”

The loss of contact with his hood makes the law enforcement vehicle have to force back a wave of disappointment. When the other two clear out of their way, Chase and the Chief reverse back onto the road.

“Doc, what’s the status on that anti-serum?”

“Still working on it, Chief. The serum itself is still a work-in-progress, and its precise properties make it difficult to simply reverse the formula and take the effects away.” There is a sound of something bubbling in the background over his line. “It’s very unlike Evan and Myles to steal an invention before it’s perfected.”

“I agree, but I know from experience that behavior unlike the two of them is usually just covering up behavior that is very much like them.”

“I just hope you can catch them before the serum diffuses. When it does, it could cause rapid muscular and cardiovascular atrophy.”

This is one quality Chase appreciates about the scientist: he speaks very clearly.

“Wait, Doc, I think I have an idea,” says Cody.

~----------~

With the brothers suspended in air and unable to run away, it’s easy to inject the antidote into their systems when Doc Greene finally gets it ready. “Hover technology. So commonplace it slipped our minds. Great thinking, Cody.”

“What were you two even thinking?” Dani sets a severe look on both of the criminals, not that it’s any more effective than the Chief’s ever is. “Is almost getting yourselves killed worth another failed theft?  Really?”

Evan mutters something completely unintelligible to anyone but his brother. “Yeah, you don’t know anything, bro.” He looks for a moment like he’s going to say something more, but he bites it back at the last moment. “I’m gonna need my lawyer.”

Chief Burns sighs. “Of course.”

Heatwave pulls up suddenly to the site and Kade jumps out.

“What took you so long?” Dani asks.

“Unexpected fuel spill,” he explains. “Among other problems.” He gives a sharp look to his partner, still in vehicle mode.

There would be a very serious conversation when this is all over, she suspects. Actually, it’s not such a suspicion. Chase’s delayed reactions lately ensure it. It’s just a matter of making sure their jobs get done first. Graham and Boulder are still working on reconstruction on the other side of the island. That giant squid attack sure did a number on the Eastern outskirts.

She’s glad that Blades hasn’t been giving her too much trouble. He won’t give her any answers, either, but he at least hasn’t been slower to act or anything like that recently. Frustrating, but not dangerous to the team.

“Cop-bot, give me a lift,” Chief Burns orders. Chase lifts him up so he can cuff the brothers. “We’ll meet back up at the Firehouse. I’ll see these two back to prison. Again.”

~----------~

The rest of the team is waiting with varying degrees of patience when Chase and Chief Burns enter the bunker. Kade is pacing. Heatwave is pointedly not looking at anyone else in the room. Boulder, Graham, Blades, and Cody appear to have started a card game of some sort. But Dani— _oh_ —is staring right at them, a severity in her eyes that forces him to purposefully shut off his vocalizer until he is certain he will not make a shameful noise.

“Family meeting,” the Chief announces from next to his legs. When Heatwave fails to turn his attention to him with everyone else, he clarifies, “That means you, too.”

With everyone’s attention thus gathered, he says, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but after today’s mission, I’m afraid I’m going to have to. Something is wrong, and I need you to explain what it is. Chase, is there anything you need to tell us?”

Chase’s spark misses a pulse at being addressed directly on this matter. His processor temporarily freezes before whirring into frenzy. He can lie neither to his partner nor his family, but he cannot explain fully what he does not understand. In addition, there are certain details he wishes to remain private. However, if it is truly such a concern for the entirety of their team, he may have to divulge at least the majority of what is disturbing him.

He chooses his words very carefully. “There is a certain line of my coding that had—until recently—remained latent. As this particular line is sometimes naturally inactive in certain Cybertronians, I had believed it likewise inactive in myself. This appears not to be the case. The coding is not inherently harmful, but adjusting to its…presence…has proven difficult.”

“There’s nothing wrong, exactly,” Blades cuts in. “He’s just experiencing something very foreign to him. Given enough time, he’ll be back to normal, I’m sure.”

“And what if he’s not?” Kade asks brusquely.

“I require only time to adjust, nothing more. If further action is required, I will not hesitate to acquire assistance.”

Chief Burns looks thoughtful for a moment. “What set this off, do you think?”

Chase meets Dani’s gaze briefly before quickly looking away. “Undetermined. I have a handful of ideas, but nothing concrete and sensible.”

The conversation lasts a little longer after that, but thankfully, he is not forced to reveal any details he does not wish to. Eventually, the Burns family except for Kade leaves. Cody is the last of them besides the fireman to exit. He pats Chase’s leg and tells him to please be okay.

There is a little sting of pain (and possibly guilt?) in his spark.

~----------~

Okay, “inherently harmful” or not, having trouble adjusting seems to be more than a tiny inconvenience to her. But her father accepts the answer, so Dani will have to trust his judgment.

Still, she really has to wonder about that little look. Just a glance, too quick _not_ to be noticeable. He looked right at her and had to turn away. There has to be some sort of meaning behind it, but what? What could she possibly have to do with his problems?

Chase has always been a little indecipherable, and not just because of his habit of using big words. Those were easy enough to get with enough patience. It’s more in his expressions and behavior. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he has emotions, but the depths or complexities are hard to see. If he looks sad, it’s hard to tell how sad or what kind of sadness he’s feeling unless he tells you directly… _which he’s really unlikely to do_.

But that glance? It was like nothing else she has ever seen from him. He did say he’s experiencing something completely new to him. Is it even something a human could understand or something untranslatable like the game known only as “Chase Always Wins”?

Whatever the case, it’s clear that this is something Chase isn’t winning right now.


	4. Deal With It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confrontations often don't have the desired result. All you can hope is that you don't tear a bigger hole patching things up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hilariously, the banter was the easiest part to write. I expected it to be a "how do words?" kind of deal.

            “Keep up that face and it’ll stick like that,” jabs Heatwave in response to Kade glaring at him for a full five minutes after the rest of the Burns family leaves.

            “Ha ha, real clever. Who taught you that one, the robobaby?” he replies, not missing a beat. They’ve done this often enough that falling into a rhythm is almost automatic. With anyone else, that might be scary, but with the two of them, it’s almost a mark of how close they’ve become.

            “And I’m _so_ sure you got yours from a certifiable genius, right?”

            “The brilliance of my own mind, thanks.”

            “Yeah, brilliant…If you’re comparing it to the luster of kaolinite, maybe.”

            “Took you all day to come up with that one, didn’t it?”

            “If it did, that means you’re predictable enough for me to have seen that one coming for at least a day.”

            “Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we,” Kade says, “and that’s that Chase isn’t the only ‘Bot around here not acting like himself.”

            “It’s impossible to ‘act’ if there’s no performance being put on.”

            “And you really expect me to believe there _isn’t_ one?”

            “Yes.” He inwardly laughs at the look of frustration on his human’s face. “Kade, before today, has anything I’ve done ever jeopardized a mission or your family’s safety?”

            “Uh, yeah, driving the Mobile HQ, for one. Even if you haven’t been a danger before, that doesn’t change the fact that you could be turning into a danger now. I don’t want today’s mishaps to turn into a trend. What’s going on?”

            “ _Nothing_ ,” Heatwave snaps. Normally, Kade’s resolve is charming, but now it’s starting to grind on his nerves.

            “It doesn’t sound like nothing!” There’s fire in his eyes, but after a moment, it cools into something fretful. “Heatwave, you once told me rescuers need to be at the top of their game. I just want to make sure you’re at the top of yours.”

            “I’m _fine_.” He holds the fireman’s stare for several moments more. Finally relenting, he lets out an imitation of a sigh. “There was an argument last night. It won’t happen again, so quit worrying.”

            “We argue all the time, and it never stops you from doing your job. What’s so much worse about _them_ arguing with you?”

            Flashes of the conversation and his walk and the nightmare he shouldn’t have been able to have run through his processor in quick succession. “Probably the fact that it _doesn’t_ happen all the time,” he lies.

            Kade crosses his arms over his chest, still looking doubtful. “Well, that _better_ be all it is, for your sake.”

            “Are you trying to threaten me?”

            “I’m _trying_ to look out for my family. And last time I checked? You had the same goal in mind.” Before Heatwave can get in another word, Kade turns and heads for the elevator.

            Heatwave doesn’t try to stop him. He just growls and storms off to train.

~----------~

            Their father is cooking when Kade reaches the living-area of the Firehouse. Personally, he’s not exactly sure he can eat. His appetite might be killed after that conversation.

So much for getting back to normal. It almost felt like maybe they could at the beginning of the argument, but once Heatwave started deflecting his questions and getting all defensive, he knew the weirdness is only getting started.

“Penny for your thoughts, son?” Chief Burns asks, setting a bowl of salad on the table.

Kade frowns deeply, but takes his seat at the table. He leans his head on his arm before responding. “Heatwave told me he was arguing with someone else.”

“Aw, are you jealous?” teases Dani, plopping down into the chair next to him.

He shoots her a look. “Not what I meant. He’s not the friendliest of ‘Bots, but he doesn’t make a habit of seeking out shouting matches, either. His changes in mood lately are weirdly lined up with Chase’s, and I’m just wondering why he’s having so many problems if it’s _Chase’s_ coding that’s been affected.”

“Maybe Chase’s coding issue is causing tension between the two of them,” Graham suggests, taking his seat next. Cody isn’t far behind him.

“Well, it’s a theory,” says their father. “You said that Heatwave has been acting strange long before any of this? Maybe the more recent matter is just agitating an already standing issue.”

“Yeah, but if that’s the case, then what?” Kade gestures broadly with his hands, nearly hitting his siblings on accident and forcing them to dodge out of the way. “What was there to be agitated?”

Chief Burns sighs. “We don’t know. Chase has given all he seems to be able to give, and Heatwave won’t answer your questions yet, it sounds like. All we can do is keep attentive and hope the Bots are more willing to divulge information later.”

“Did any of you notice…?” All eyes turn on Dani. “Did it seem like Chase was having trouble looking at any of you, or was it just me?”

“He looked embarrassed again,” says Cody. “Whatever’s active in his code now, it’s making him uncomfortable.”

She frowns. Kade, in response, raises an eyebrow and smirks. “You seem disappointed, sis. Expecting something else?”

“No, I just think there’s something more here than meets the eye.”

~----------~

Heatwave punches the post a little harder than he normally would. He can’t help it; he just really needs some form of release. That fight with Kade almost felt good again. Almost, but then things went right downhill. At least the fireman figuratively getting under his dermal plating is familiar enough territory, but it still leaves him here, training vigorously in the hope of finding distraction.

The image of the redhead looking worried about him pushes its way into his processor, and Heatwave misses his next hit. He makes up for it by punching the post so hard that it loses an arm. He sighs heavily and sits down, tension sliding off of him. He would have to fix that, eventually.

Boulder sidles up beside him after…Heatwave is not exactly sure how long, but neither of them says a word for the first few minutes. They just share what would, under other circumstances, be a companionable silence.

Heatwave speaks first. “I don’t think you came over because you like this spot. What do you have to say?”

“Nothing. Just offering an audial receptor if you need one.”

The truck almost protests, but he knows it’s pointless. “Thanks. I just—argh. Kade has been on my case for at least a month, now. I’m used to the little disagreements, but now it feels like we’ve taken a huge leap backwards. It was getting easier to work with the jerk. How much longer are we going to be able to work together if things keep going at this rate?”

One nice thing about the bulldozer is his total patience. It’s obvious he knows how much of the explanation to believe and how much of it is absolute malarkey, but he doesn’t call his leader out on any of it. “Are you sure it’s really moving backwards? One strange thing I’ve noticed about humans is that sometimes they yell at people they care about. Maybe this is just Kade’s way of making sure you’re taking care of yourself.”

“And why would he suspect I’m not,” he replies, not quite shouting yet but definitely starting to raise his voice.

“You’ve been kind of restless lately. Anyone who spends sufficient time with you would notice. It could be nothing, or it could be serious as far as he knows. But the less information he has, the more he has to assume it’s something serious.” Boulder pauses long enough to let the words sink in. “You mentioned being worried that you two won’t be able to work together if this keeps up.”

“Yeah, so? Teamwork is essential in our line of work.”

“It means you feel that whatever is going on between you two _is_ pretty serious. Somehow, I doubt that a little extra anger is all you’re worried about.”

Heatwave stiffens. It’s in these moments that he wishes his teammates weren’t so astute. “It’s not something I can talk about. It’s not something you would understand.”

“Heatwave—”

“Thank you for trying, Boulder, but I’m _fine_.”

The green ‘Bot falls silent, still giving his leader an assessing look.

~----------~

Kade finds himself pacing the floor of his room. He did eat dinner after all, but now he can’t settle down. Dani’s comments had relaxed him some, strangely bringing him back to his cocky self, at least for a little while. Unfortunately, being away from the rest of the family for the night means there are no voices to drown out the doubt that strikes him in the quietest of moments.

He almost cries aloud when his phone rings, but quickly collects himself. “Hello? Ah, Hayley!” Her voice makes his heart beat for all the right reasons, calming him enough to sit down. “Saturday? I think I can manage that. Pick you up at 8?”

Remembering his last exchange with Heatwave, he shakes his head. “Actually, how about we head out a little early? We can walk there.”


	5. Feeling This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving forward can happen in leaps, baby steps, or awkward stumbling that results in you trampling all over the toes of some poor, innocent bystander.

            Chase, sitting at the console, sighs. Ignoring his feelings has proven ineffectual. Perhaps they will fade to time, but in the present, subduing his reactions is proving to only make them stronger and, consequently, putting a greater strain on his relationship with his ~~family~~ team.

            Paradoxically, while his understanding of normal social interaction is limited, he is still learning quite a bit about human attitudes in his stay on Earth, and he has become aware that “lusting after” one’s partner’s daughter is generally considered “weird” or potentially even “creepy,” depending on the exact circumstances. Thus, it is in his best interest to keep his feelings private.

            But is it not wrong to lie? It had been necessary when he went “undercover,” but even then, he had caused his ~~family~~ team much emotional turmoil and found himself very pained as well. On the other hand, it had brought them success in stopping Evan and Myles. Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Clearly, he can no longer lie to himself on this matter, but would it be advantageous to continue keeping a secret from everyone else?

            The answers are not ones anyone can supply him with and very difficult to come up with on his own. The more he contemplates the issue, the more the characters on the screen before him blur together into nonsense.

            He reboots his optics and tries to focus on work. Duty always comes first.

~----------~

            It’s frustrating, feeling this close to an answer and being told she’s wrong. It would be so easy to say she’s what’s affecting Chase. It would explain a lot. But if her only bit of evidence can be explained away with “He won’t look at anyone,” she has nothing.

            “Are you sure you can’t tell me _anything?_ ” Dani asks. She and Blades are flying back from a mission. Simple delivery, easy work, but it gives her lots of time to think and question him as needed.

            “I’m not sure there’s anything for _me_ to tell. What I think is weird about Chase is probably really, really different from what everyone else thinks is weird.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Chase doesn’t act like most Cybertronians or humans. I’ve known one or two like him, but they were considered oddballs, too. Not a bad thing, in his case, just unusual.” Even with only his face visible, it’s somehow obvious that Blades is shrugging. “Adjusting to view his brand of weird as normal, strange becomes something else entirely.”

            “Like?” she presses. Any detail at all that Blades can give her could be exactly what she needs to figure out what’s going on here.

            He chuckles weakly and ducks down. “Not really my place to say, even if I was certain of all the details.”

            Dani lets out a noise that’s somewhere between a sigh and a groan. She just wants to see this all taken care of and back to normal, but her little investigation is going nowhere. “You’re being really unhelpful, you know that?”

            “Sorry, but there’s only so much I can say.”

~----------~

            The time required for Chase to finish his reports is protracted by just long enough for him to notice, though no one else probably would. When he rises from his seat, his joints have a greater stiffness to them than usual, and it takes ever so slightly longer for that stiffness to work its way out.

            But overall, the experience is worth it. He had thought it impossible to focus entirely on his work after the coding activated itself, but this shows that he can still prevent his processor from drifting for long enough to complete important work. As previously found, trying to ignore his emotions entirely does no good, but this shows that there can be a balance.

            The only question that remains is where exactly this balance lies. Is it in finally acknowledging that he has an undeniable attraction? Is it in the fact that Dani is not present to unknowingly stir the undesired thoughts? Is it in affirming that duty comes first, even when personal affairs seem troubling?

            “Hey, what’s got you freezing up?” Heatwave calls, heading right for him.

            Chase almost jumps. He had not realized he had been standing still. “I have come to the conclusion that you were right about my inclinations towards Dani. However, I am unable to figure out in what direction I should go from here.”

            A triumphant expression passes over Heatwave’s face before returning to something more neutral. “There’s not much _to_ do. Dani is pretty happy with Taylor, last I checked.”

            That causes the police-mech’s spark to twinge, but he nods. “This, I am aware of. But I have found the acknowledgement of my reactions to reduce their severity to a considerable degree.” He tilts his helm and gives his leader a meaningful stare.

            Heatwave’s optics widen a fraction. “Oh no. You’re not tricking me into saying anything. I know what you think, and it’s _not_ like that.”

            “Are you certain? Because that appears unlikely from my observances.”

            “Then you’ve observed _wrong!_ ”

            Chase puts up his hands in a placating manner. It appears that the fire truck is quite upset over this matter, but progress must be made. “Heatwave, you have nothing you must tell me. I apologize if I am invading your privacy. But I must insist that you be truthful with yourself, if only for your own well-being.”

            “Be truthful about what?” he asks rhetorically, still obviously seething. “That I lo—” For a moment, he seems to choke on the word.

            “Yes?” prompts Chase patiently.

            “I lo—uh, like Kade?” he spits out. He looks disgusted with himself for the half-aborted admission. It is a start, at least.

            The Rescue Bot’s SIC smiles serenely in an attempt to encourage his leader. “If that is what you feel, then you have made a first good step to feeling and functioning better.”

            He folds his arms over his chest. “Great. But what’s the next step?”

            Chase’s shoulders sag. “I have not gotten that far. I believe it takes what are known as ‘baby steps.’ I was unaware that human infants could step. I believed they were much more taken to crawling. Nonetheless, the progress will be slow.”

            “Almost like no progress at all.”

            “We have only just started.”

            There is a pause, and then Heatwave snorts. “Think maybe we could surprise the interface wishes right out of ourselves?”

            “How do you mean?”

            “I mean humans don’t have sparks or wires or plugs or E.M. fields, and what are the chances they have any other compatible parts?” He starts walking towards the bookshelf.

            “Ah. You mean to suggest that by learning how the humans experience those sorts of activities, it may remind our systems we are incapable of interface with them, and, if how humans interface is disturbing enough, it may eliminate the urge entirely.”

Chase joins him at the bookcase, quickly identifying a book on anatomy and pulling it from the shelf. He and Heatwave read together as best they can manage with a small book between the two of them.

The mental images their reading leaves them with are not the kind of disturbing they were expecting yet too horrific to be properly described.

~----------~

Dani reenters the Firehouse to the sight of her father staring at a mug of coffee, gaze distant like that of a man who has just come back from war. “Dad?”

He startles at the sound of her voice. “Dani! Welcome back.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost. You know, a real one. Are you okay?”

“Maybe.” He takes a gulp from his mug. “At the very least, I think I know what part of the problem is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *ominous evil cackling*


	6. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chief Charlie Burns gets some unexpected news and realizes he may have to give The Talk again sooner than he expected to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *inhale* Ah, I love the smell of dramatic irony in the morning.
> 
> And it's past midnight as I post this, so there. Morning.

            For a moment, try being in Chief Charlie Burns’ position. He’s a father of four children—well, three of them aren’t children so much anymore in anything but attitude. His family has extended beyond that in ways he couldn’t have once imagined. He loves them all dearly and would do nearly anything in his power to keep them together and safe.

            So imagine, then, what happens when that big, happy family is suddenly facing some internal turmoil, but there is only the vaguest of ideas what it might be. Information is limited but essential for any sort of progress. Move too slowly, and it will be too late to protect the family; move too quickly, and what little semblance of balance there is could come tumbling down.

            He has to keep what peace is left while trying to build back what was lost. Easier said than done when he doesn’t know what took it away in the first place.

            He’s not an idiot. He couldn’t have become an officer of the law without a sharp mind, let alone become the Chief. He knows pretty well that something serious is affecting the ‘Bots, but he notices that interrogating Chase in front of the rest of the family doesn’t seem to be an effective solution, only making the police car more nervous.

            This is something he would have to ask about in a much quieter environment, preferably with most of his family out of the house, but he could accept them just being out of the bunker, too. The first moment he can find, he takes. It’s not optimal, with Heatwave still in the bunker with Chase, but Dani is out with Blades, Graham with Boulder, Cody with Frankie, and Kade is in his room. The moment is good enough.

            Chase and Heatwave don’t hear him come in through the lift, and it’s probably for the best. He’s not sure he ever would have heard the words he hears otherwise.

            “I know what you think, and it’s not like that.”

            “Are you certain? Because that appears unlikely from my observances.”

            “Then you’ve observed wrong!”

            “Heatwave, you have nothing you must tell me. I apologize if I am invading your privacy. But I must insist that you be truthful with yourself, if only for your own well-being.”

            “Be truthful about what? That I lo—”

            “Yes?”

            “I lo—uh, like Kade?”

            It’s a very good thing the Chief isn’t holding anything when he hears that because he would have dropped it and made a very loud noise. Instead, he immediately heads back to the lift and returns to the living level. His cheeks feel like flames. Rationally, he knows fleeing like this is ridiculous, but it feels as though he has invaded something personal. His rational mind will eventually catch up with him, but for now, he’s acting on pure instinct that tells him to get out of there.

            He can’t remember making the coffee. He can’t even really remember having the impulse to make it. Regardless, he has the mug in hand (a few sips obviously missing) when Dani walks in. He doesn’t hear her walk in, mind still on the startling news.

            “Dad?”

Chief Burns jolts at the sudden sound of his daughter’s voice breaking through the fog of his thoughts. “Dani! Welcome back.”

Her facial expression is deeply anxious as she steps towards him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. You know, a real one. Are you okay?”

“Maybe.” Finally becoming aware of that coffee he doesn’t remember making, he gulps from it. His throat feels mysteriously dry. “At the very least, I think I know what part of the problem is.”

“Really? That’s great, isn’t it?” she asks, taking a seat next to him. “What’s going on, then?"

He sighs and leans back in his chair. The information is still quite a bit of a shock, even if it makes a little more sense the longer he thinks about it. Still, he keeps his voice low when he speaks next. “Heatwave is in love with Kade.”

Mild surprise, understanding, confusion, disappointment, and suspicion cross her face in rapid succession. “Could’ve seen that one coming, actually. The two of them are really bad at pretending to still hate each other. But what does this have to do with Chase?”

“I still don’t know,” he says, shaking his head. It doesn’t make complete sense. “It would make sense to say that his coding has something to do with love and emotion somehow, except that he seemed exceptionally calm—especially for how he’s been—while Heatwave told him, and he didn’t mention any problems of his own. For all I know, Chase has been experiencing some anxiety and Heatwave’s feelings have been aggravating it.”

“Oh.” Her voice is surprisingly flat; he can take note of that now that his senses are returning to him. “Well, have you talked to Kade about this?”

“I’ll get to that shortly. First, I want to ask _you_ something.” He places his hand gently over hers. “Are you okay? You seem a little dissatisfied with my conclusion. Did you have something different in mind?”

“Nothing I can prove just yet, dad, but I’ll tell you if I find anything out.” She pulls her hand out from under his, but she doesn’t leave before kissing his forehead. “Have fun talking to Kade.”

Fun isn’t exactly what he would call it. He thought for sure he wouldn’t have to give The Talk again for at least another few years, when Cody is old enough to be embarrassed with him over the rite of passage. But as Dani points out, both Heatwave _and_ Kade are really bad at acting like they don’t get along.

He isn’t entirely sure how the younger generations do relationships or how closed things are with Hayley, but Kade trying something out with Heatwave doesn’t feel like that far out of the question. He just wants to make sure his son is safe about things.

The Burns’ father knocks firmly on his eldest son’s door. “Kade?”

The door cracks open a few seconds later, Kade standing behind it with one eyebrow raised. “Yeah, Dad?”

“May I come in? I want to talk to you.”

“Ooookaaay,” he says, slightly confused. There’s a soft creak from the hinges as the door opens wider.

As he enters the room, Chief Burns says, “Close the door and take a seat, son.” He patiently waits for the fireman to do as told. “It’s been brought to my attention that you might be taking a new step in a relationship soon.”

Kade stiffens, looking mildly uncomfortable. “Maybe not that new,” he mutters.

That startles the older man. “What?” Had the two already made a move on each other without anyone knowing? Maybe Heatwave’s embarrassment is only in how deep the feelings run. Oh, this could be a mess waiting to happen.

“Uh, nothing, Dad,” he covers quickly and completely unconvincingly.

Undeterred, Chief Burns continues. “What you do is between you and is your business. I’m only concerned with your safety. The difference in physical strength for example—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kade interrupts. “Dad. Like you said, whatever we do is our business. And trust me, anything we’re going to do is discussed thoroughly beforehand and planned out. Completely safe. So, could you please save the awkward sex talk for when Cody is old enough for it?” He gets up from his seat and reopens the door, effectively ending the conversation.

Chief Burns sighs and starts to leave, but he places a hand on his son’s shoulder at the doorway. “Just be careful, okay?”

“I will,” he assures him.


	7. Headlock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two people can tell the same story and make it sound very, very different.
> 
> Also, Heatwave gets a wash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say that I really wish "Changes" had aired before I started this entire multichapter fic? If I had only waited a little longer to get my ideas out...
> 
> Ah well. Such as life.
> 
> If the chapters start to come slower after a while, it's probably because I want to work in elements from these next several episodes into later chapters. But that's a big "IF," and I still have at least a few more chapters planned that ought to be unaffected by newer events in canon.
> 
> Most of the time, I prefer to let you figure out the chapter titles on your own, but I feel this one requires song lyrics to explain, so... "You've been walking, you've been hiding, / And you look half dead half the time."

            Kade is actually sitting on his bed, polishing an old sports trophy and trying very hard not to think about anything other than _maybe_ that he might want to see if he can find his childhood toy trains, when he hears the knock on the door. His father’s voice is slightly muffled from behind the door, but it’s powerful enough that he can hear, “Kade?”

The redhead sets aside his things easily. He hasn’t been working on anything important, after all. But he hasn’t exactly been dying to talk to the family, either, after how things have been going recently, and he can’t really think of a reason for his dad to come speak with him, either. Curious and cautious, he only opens the door a crack to peer out. “Yeah, Dad?”

“May I come in? I want to talk to you.” He sounds strangely serious about…whatever this is about.

Kade is already weirded out. This does not bode well for the conversation, but he isn’t going to just shut his dad out for no reason. “Ooookaaay,” he answers, opening the door wider to let his father in.

“Close the door and take a seat, son.” He does as told. “It’s been brought to my attention that you might be taking a new step in a relationship soon.”

Okay, that’s kind of uncomfortable. He thought this might be going in a personal direction, but he wasn’t expecting to have his father in his business about Hayley. “Maybe not that new,” he mutters. Curse Dani, Blades, and whoever invented binoculars.

“What?” His father’s eyes widen beneath his thick eyebrows, which arch upward.

Wait, he hadn’t caught on to what Dani was implying when she made that comment about seeing everything? Backtrack, quickly! “Uh, nothing, Dad,” he says.

Chief Burns halts only a short time more. “What you do is between you and is your business. I’m only concerned with your safety. The difference in physical strength for example—”

Yep, this is becoming Uncomfortably Personal, and he is not about to deal with that. He has to stop his father, and now. He doesn’t even want to know what he’s implying with the strength thing, because if it’s kinky, that _definitely_ not something he wants to talk about with his dad. Kade starts babbling out assurances—true ones, but babbled none the less and told in an attempt to end the conversation. “So, could you please save the awkward sex talk for when Cody is old enough for it?” Before he even really knows it, he’s at the door and has it open; he just wants this to be over _that much_.

The fireman tries not to sigh in relief as his father starts to leave. He’s especially glad he held it in when the Chief stops suddenly at the threshold, puts a fatherly hand on his shoulder, and gives him a bizarrely somber look. “Just be careful, okay?”

This obviously is something very serious to him for some reason. Kade can feel an atmosphere of severity around him all of the sudden. He matches his father’s gaze with an equally serious expression. “I will.”

Once Chief Burns leaves, he closes the door and returns to the edge of his bed, but doesn’t pick back up his work. For some reason, he can’t shake the feeling that he missed something just now.

~----------~

Heatwave refuses to look at Chase or the Anatomy book. Yes, he knows it’s his own fault for suggesting it, but the police ‘Bot should have known better and… No, he had been just as clueless as he was, and now, he’s just as disturbed as the truck-former is.

As it turns out, while humans do have a much more limited range of options for certain “recreational activities,” they do have something similar to one Cybertronian option, just sized down. And fleshy. And a lot more fragile.

He shudders. He really shouldn’t be thinking about this, but the unexpected images haunt him. He wanted to get rid of his urges, but not like this.

The two of them just sit there quietly, not even fidgeting until Blades comes in. “Uh, are you two okay? ‘Cause—”

“Perfectly fine,” Heatwave interrupts. He reaches back and slams the book closed.

Chase near-immediately reacts by picking up the book and returning it to the shelves. He then amends their leader’s statement with, “We have discovered the unfortunate truth that human biology is disturbing.”

“Um, yeah, _I_ could have told you that,” says Blades, “and yet you waited until _now_ to figure that out?” He steps closer to the two of them. “So, no more weird crushes on the humans?”

“Let’s hope not,” grumbles Heatwave. “I’d hate to have gone through that for nothing.”

“Difficult to determine at present, but that is certainly one potential outcome.”

“Great! Because Dani has definitely not been easy on the flying lately. I feel a little like I’ve been tortured for information.” Blades just prattles on like that for a little while. Other days, Heatwave might have complained, but he needs the distraction today.

Cody comes home eventually, but Heatwave’s thoughts are still a swirl of discontent. “Are you all right, Heatwave?” the boy asks innocently.

He’s still really tense when the question registers, but he can’t be rude to Cody. The kid is just trying to watch out for a friend. He relaxes as much as possible and replies, “Just a little stressed is all. I’ll be fine.”

Cody looks slightly disbelieving, but he doesn’t push. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Oo, yes please!” Blades interjects.

Heatwave is about to turn him down but changes his mind at the last moment. “Okay,” he answers lamely.

He can’t completely get into the comedy today. Slapstick is a lot less funny when his processor keeps supplying him with how very easily damaged humans can be. From the minor twitches in Chase’s faceplate and frame, he can guess that the blue Rescue Bot is having much the same problem. A few of the jokes that fly over Cody’s head make more sense, but they make his tanks turn when he thinks about that accursed Anatomy book.

~----------~

“Maybe you could do something nice for Heatwave,” Cody says out of nowhere.

Kade stares blankly at his youngest sibling. “What?” He might have had a more intelligent response if he even knew where his brother is coming from. Or maybe his reaction would have been exactly the same, but it doesn’t really have the freedom to be anything else when he doesn’t have time to prepare for the suggestion.

“Heatwave’s been really upset and grumpy lately, and, well, I don’t know if he’s feeling underappreciated again or what, but I just thought maybe you could do something.”

He doesn’t mean to let it happen, but his shoulders rise defensively. “Have _you_ tried cheering him up?” he asks a little more forcefully than he probably ought.

“A little, but what I do isn’t helping so much, and I have homework keeping me from doing as much as I want to.”

“What makes you think _I_ could do more than _you_ can? He likes you better anyway.” That’s kind of a lie. At least, he has an inkling that it’s a lie. Emotions are getting more confusing the longer this all goes on, but he was—is—pretty sure he and Heatwave are at least kind of friends. Still, Heatwave has always been softer on the kid.

“Could you at least try?” Cody pleads.

Kade tries to remain stubbornly upset, but he gives in with a sigh. “Fine. But don’t say I never do anything you ask.”

“Thanks, Kade.”

He wanders off, leaving the fireman to contemplate what he’s going to do. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a sponge.

~----------~

When Kade suddenly appears in the ‘Bot’s living area with a bucket of soapy water and a sponge, Heatwave is surprised, to say the least. “Kade, what are you--?”

“I’m giving you two options: you can transform into vehicle mode, or you can kneel so I can actually reach some of your frame.”

“Tch. Might want to wait until I’m away from any equipment that might not like water too much,” the truck-former says, stepping out into a clear spot. “What’s this about? Getting me all shiny and clean so you can impress Hayley?”

He snorts. “Please, she’s used to you, clean or not. Not that impressive, big guy.” He appears to have a change of heart soon after saying that. “Except in a rescue situation. _Most_ of the time.” The redhead starts rubbing circles of soap into a leg, probably because that’s what’s easiest to reach.

“Wow, that’s almost high praise from you,” Heatwave retorts dryly.

They fall silent as Kade continues working. He doesn’t neglect the Cybertronian’s joints, rubbing the sponge into them a little more gently than the rest of his frame but not missing a spot, either. It’s the same effect as a massage for a human, and Heatwave finds himself melting (metaphorically, thankfully) into a relaxed stance.

His engine gives a delighted rumble. “I thought you would find this kind of work tedious.”

“You’re a lot more interesting than Dad’s boat.” He doesn’t seem to notice what he’s said at first, but then he practically trips over himself trying to cover. “The boat doesn’t talk back, for one thing.”

Heatwave smirks, but doesn’t say anything. The compliment, accidental or not, makes him feel pleasantly warm.

Even with him kneeling, his shoulders are a bit of a reach for Kade. The fireman is forced to push himself tightly against his partner.

Heatwave likes it more than he wants to. Way more. The heat radiating off his smaller body, the way the fingers of his free hand cling to him, and the smoothness of muscle, even through the soft fabric of a shirt, all have him itching to touch Kade back. To hold him, at the very least, though his frame is screaming for more. He has to force his engine to be quiet and pray that Kade doesn’t hear the erratic whirring of his spark.


	8. Mathematics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things finally add up for Dani, and the answer is exactly what she already expected.

            Two plus two should equal four. Chase acting embarrassed around her plus Chase’s problem having something to do with Heatwave loving Kade should equal Chase is attracted to her. Should equal, but just when Dani thinks she has the answer, the X’s and Y’s start getting involved. They could affect nothing, but they could mean everything.

            And they could mean _anything_. Cody seems to think Chase is acting embarrassed around everyone, so maybe she’s overestimating her influence on matters. Her father says he had considered an answer similar to hers, except without a particular target of the ‘Bot’s affections, but also that Chase seems very calm about the subject of attraction. Then again, this could be because Chase is calm to begin with, and it takes a lot to shake him.

            It takes about ten minutes for her to remember that she’s holding a magazine, but only twenty seconds longer for her to figure out that she can’t focus on reading it at all. She tosses it aside and picks up the TV remote. Her brain doesn’t seem to want to cooperate with written word right now, but maybe she can process colorful images and noise, preferably something mindless so she can forget about this growing headache.

            She flips through the channels half-heartedly. She’s sure it really doesn’t matter _what_ she picks; it’s all just background sound so she can try to relax.

            Cody sits down next to her at some point. “Dani?”

            “Hm?” she replies without looking at him.

            “Are you okay? You seem a little distracted.”

            “What? What makes you say that?” she asks distractedly.

            “Uh, because this is the fifth time you’ve passed by that cat food commercial,” he says, pointing at the television screen.

            With a start, she realizes that he’s right. Maybe it really _doesn’t_ matter what she turns on. She stops changing the channel and drops the remote onto the cushion between them. “Whoa, I guess I _am_ a little distracted.”

            “If there’s anything I can do—”

            “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think there is anything you can.” She sighs and leans forward, resting her forearms on her knees. “I was just thinking about Chase again. I’ve had this idea about what might be bothering him, but I can’t get any evidence.”

            “You could try asking him directly,” Cody suggests. “Sometimes, with Chase, you have to be really straight-forward or he won’t even know there is information to give.”

            “But he also gives all the information he thinks could be important.”

            “Maybe he didn’t think it _was_ important. Where’s the harm in trying?”

            Quiet settles around them as Dani tries to think of a way to argue. It’s not like Chase likes lying, and she doesn’t really lose anything by asking, except hopefully this headache. “You’re right,” she finally admits, pushing herself up from the couch. “I’ll go ask.”

~----------~

            Chase sits in silence. He is not a very talkative character to begin with, but he needs to focus now. Dispelling the images of electrical burns and broken bones is proving to be an exceptional challenge, more demanding than even banishing his fantasies about Dani. He feels twitchy and restless, making his attempt at meditation even harder.

            The other Rescue Bots, mercifully, are giving him some space and quiet. Unfortunately, what little improvement he makes is lost when the lift doors open.

            “Chase?”

Oh no. Her voice sends shocks of flutters through his spark. There are gentler, more silvery voices than hers, but his feelings for her warp her tones into the sonic equivalent of the caress of a polishing cloth. “Dani. What brings you here?” His pull towards her and the disturbing visions brought on by his and Heatwave’s research war within him, almost becoming a physical ache, but he tries to maintain a neutral exterior.

“I have a question for you.”

His optical sensors almost follow the sway of her hips as she walks towards him until he reins his reactions in. With him seated on the floor, the massive height difference between the two of them is reduced greatly, and he has a much clearer view of the expression of determination on her face.

When she gets very close, she stops and stands before him with her hands on her hips. “Do you have a crush on me?”

That particular term for an attraction brings the less pleasant forces of his conflicted emotions to the forefront, making him cringe. For a short time, the emotional reaction prevents him from speaking, but he cannot bring himself to lie once he is able to speak again. “Yes. I have great displeasure for that word for it,” especially considering he could, accidentally, _crush_ her, “but I am attracted to you.”

He counts down in his helm, anticipating the inevitable fear or repulsion or—

“I knew I couldn’t be reading into things,” she says, looking away from him. Her eyes soon dart back to his face, though. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner? Everyone’s been worried sick about you. We thought it could be something serious.”

His other emotions are pushed into the background by a new wave of guilt. “I never intended to trouble anyone. I meant only to keep my feelings a secret until they could be expelled. I did not want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Oh Chase.” Dani touches his arm comfortingly. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable. I don’t return your feelings, but I still care about you. You’re like family. Besides, you’ve been very respectful about things. I know some guys who just don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Her response brings an unexpected sinking feeling. He knew she could not feel the same way for him, especially not when she is in a relationship with Taylor, but it still feels like his spark has suddenly become smaller and denser.

Even so, he keeps his expression neutral. “Of course.” Respectfully distant is something he can be. Social rules are still rules, and he will follow them down to a T.

“Thank you,” she says softly. Then, she is on her way back out of the bunker.

Blades is the first of the other ‘Bots to approach him after her departure. He starts with just a pat on the shoulder. Shortly after, however, he joins his fellow rescuer on the floor and presses consolation through his EM field.

~----------~

Two plus two equals four after all; X and Y must equal zero. Problem solved. Dani can feel a little relief knowing that she had the answer all along.

Hopefully, this also means that they don’t have to worry about any more issues from this point on. Chase seems really understanding about the whole situation, so maybe he’ll find it a little easier to get over his crush after talking things over with her. Yeah, it’s probably going to sting for a bit, but everyone with any interest in sex or romance ends up dealing with rejection or disappointment at some time or another.

She wishes him luck on the next one.

She’s very at ease when her cellphone rings and answers in a relaxed tone. “Hello.” Hearing the voice on the other end of the line, though, she perks right up. “Taylor! Wingsuit flying? Sounds fun. How did the ceremony go?”

Dani had been planning on going back to the living room, but the call has her ducking into her own room instead. Her brothers tease her enough about her boyfriend as it is; there’s no need to let them in on their conversation. She sprawls over her bed, smiling to herself, just listening to the sound of his voice.


	9. It's Good to Be in Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The 'Bots figure out an important distinction, and Kade goes on a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to take a moment to thank you all for the support. I seriously expected for this just to be a project for my own amusement, but I'm so glad you guys seem to be enjoying this silly little idea of mine, too.

            If this is what being let down easy does to Chase, Heatwave knows he can’t let it happen to him. Dani’s words, as kindly spoken as they were, completely destroyed him. Kade’s words will be harsher, and he knows he can’t take a direct emotional hit that devastating.

            He never wanted to feel anything for his partner in the first place; this just gives him one more reason. Kade is infuriating and disrespectful and could take him down so easily. It makes him feel vulnerable, which in turn makes him feel disgusted with himself.

            Memories of the fireman washing him without request or need drift back into his processor without warning, and he quickly finds himself shuddering for a completely different reason. It felt so good in ways that shouldn’t have. But Kade’s attention was on him and only him, relaxed but focused, touching him with just the right balance of gentle and firm. Primus, if only he had just…if he could just…

            His own reaction to the memory makes him snarl. While Boulder joins Blades in comforting Chase, Heatwave excuses himself to channel his energy into training, just like he’s been doing. He needs that outlet or he might just break without Kade’s direct influence. He can be strong; he needs to be strong, but his human has such a pull on his emotions. It’s shameful.

            Right punch, left kick, turn and block, left punch. His practice is like a violent dance, as quick as a big, metal body can allow but fierce and loud and raging. Maybe he’s not as precise or skilled as a more elite warrior like Bumblebee, but he’s getting closer all the time. Recent incidents have meant he’s had a lot more urge and reason to train.

            Unfortunately, training also requires a lot of concentration, and for every bit of extra energy he’s been given, some focus has been taken away. His moves are a little bit sloppier than they could be. Now is no exception. In fact, with Chase being in the state he is, it’s even harder than it has been to stay on course.

            Heatwave finds himself lagging more the longer he goes on until he finally has to stop and give up. At that point, he wanders back over to his team and sits with them. “Think you’re going to survive, Chase?” he asks, half-teasingly, though there is some genuine worry in there. His team means a lot to him, and he’s not entirely sure what he would do if the police ‘Bot never returned to normal.

            “I have heard of humans dying of a broken heart,” he starts, sending a ripple of worry through the EM fields of the other three Rescue Bots, “but many such cases are mere conjecture, and those that are not involve the equivalent of our Conjunx Endura or bonded pairs. Suffice it to say, it is unlikely that this will lead to my deactivation, though the pain is greater than expected.”

            Relief tingle’s through Heatwave’s field from Boulder’s spot, but Blades’ is still jumping and flaring with fear. “Whoa, wait, am _I_ the only one hearing that _emotions_ can _kill you!?_ What’s next, oil baths? Hugs? Oh, please tell me it’s not hugs; that would mean I could’ve accidentally killed Bumblebee and then—”

            “Hugs can’t kill anyone,” Heatwave growls, “but fear can.”

            Blades flinches in with a quiet, “Meep.”

            “At least I have the fortune of seeing Dani little enough that I will not have to be reminded often of my unrequited attraction.” Chase cranes his neck back to look at their leader. “I do not envy you for your position.”

            The truck-former looks away sharply, pulling his EM field in so tightly and abruptly that its lack of contact with the others’ makes them all whip around towards him in surprise.

            “I did not mean to offend; I meant only to offer my sympathies.” Chase puts a hand on his shoulder. “Heatwave, I understand what you are going through. I have felt the accelerated spark-pulse, the pull to be near them, the desire to merge with them in a crash of bliss—”

           “To hold him, to be close to him physically and mentally…To just _talk_. To make him happy or playfully angry, but never really mad if I can avoid it. For him to be happy _with me_. Knowing that sometimes making him happy will mean putting up with his antics or accepting some kind of cost for him.”

            Chase looks bewildered. “I…did not…I do not…”

            Heatwave returns his stare with confusion. “What?”

            Blades glances between the both of them before collapsing in a fit of giggles. He just barely manages to avoid hitting the ground by bracing himself with his hands.

            “What’s so funny?” their leader demands.

            “Nothing! I’ve just— _haha_ —figured out something!” He tries to calm himself down before explaining, “I was just thinking about those romantic comedies the humans showed us. This whole time, Chase and Heatwave thought they were at the same point in the movie—”

            “But really, they’ve been at completely different scenes,” finishes Boulder. “Chase is like the romantic false lead or the love interest at the very beginning of his feelings for the main character—”

            “And Heatwave is at the part where he’s really, truly fallen, but thinks he has to give love up to make them happy. And Dani says movies aren’t realistic.”

            “Great, so glad you find our experiences entertaining,” grumbles Heatwave.

            Boulder shrinks down as much as a mech of his bulk can, bashful. “Oh, sorry, Heatwave. We didn’t mean to—”

            “Well, you did.”

            Blades clamps a hand on each of their leader’s shoulders and gives him a serious, if smiling, expression and says, “I think it’s really awesome that your feelings for Kade run that deeply. I’m just amazed it took us this long to figure it out.”

            A little disturbed by this turn in the helicopter’s demeanor, Heatwave brushes him aside and rises up from his spot. “I’m going to check the command station.”

            “But the message alert did not—” He’s out of the area before any of the others could finish a word more.

~----------~

            Kade is really glad that he didn’t have the nightshift on Friday or Saturday. No Saturday shift means not having duty to interfere with his date (well, no more interference than usual), and no Friday shift means he doesn’t have to worry about not being rested on Saturday.

            Cody’s suggestion was a bust. Well, it did make things with Heatwave better temporarily, but then it only made things weird in a new way. Now his partner is being mysteriously quiet during their missions. He tries to provoke him, tries to start up their old, fun fights, but he gets nothing but a grumpy huff out of the ‘Bot.

            But tonight, he’s not going to think about that. He has a date with the most beautiful woman he knows, and Heatwave isn’t going to be around to spoil his mood because they’re walking. It’s a nice night out, and the weather promises to stay great.

The only challenge is going to be getting out without anyone noticing. Luckily, the garage isn’t the only exit to the Firehouse. His chosen route involves a lot of climbing down, but being a rescuer means being in peak physical condition, even when you have a robot alien to help out.

Hayley’s garden is bright and colorful and full of flowers with names like _Viola_ -something and _Aster novi_ -that and… _Iris versicolor_. He can remember that one easily enough. She tries to teach him all the names, but he just doesn’t have the mind for plants. Sometimes, he’s a little embarrassed that he isn’t as smart as she is, but she seems to like him all the same, and that matters more to him.

When Hayley answers the door, he offers her his arm. “M’lady,” he says, grinning smarmily. She laughs and punches his arm, and then he holds out his hand with a more genuine smile. She laces their fingers together and starts leading him down the street.

“So, a new burger joint, huh? You said a friend was opening it up?”

“Yep. You remember Josh, don’t you?”

It takes him a moment, but then he nods. “Yeah, we were on the football team together back in high school. I remember him mentioning something about culinary school on the mainland."

“We became pen pals when he left,” she explains. “He just returned to Griffin Rock a few months ago. He’s been working with some more experienced chefs in gourmet restaurants and health food places, but he’s found that comfort food just suits him more. And his fries are amazing, let me tell you.”

“I’ll just have to try them for myself, then.”

Josh’s Burgers, as it turns out, is a really nice mock-up of an old-fashioned, sit-in burger restaurant. The décor is perfected with black and white checkerboard tiles on the floors, interestingly-shaped vinyl couches, neon signs, and robotic elements right out of fifties cartoons’ ideas of what the future would be like. Josh himself, a fake pipe that blows bubbles in his hand, greets them at the glass double doors.

A few hours later, the night almost seems to be going _too_ well for Griffin Rock. It only makes it worse when the peace inevitably breaks. In some ways, the most surprising part to Kade is that the emergency pops up in their area, and yet somehow, it doesn’t involve something in the restaurant exploding or catching fire.

No, it involves the restaurant across the street and a malfunctioning street cleaner.

Kade is out of his seat in an instant, digging his wallet out of his pocket as quickly as possible. “Hayley, you stay here. I’ll—”

“My treat this time,” she says, pushing his hand away. “You just go do your job.”

He nods and runs out. He doesn’t want to leave her, but he wouldn’t be a good rescuer if he didn’t respond as quickly as possible.

First thing’s first; he has to make sure everyone gets out safely. Easier said than done when windows are being smashed in and walls demolished. He has to throw his arms over his head when he rushes into the crumbling building to protect himself from raining dust and debris. He squints his eyes against the clouding air, trying to spot anyone still caught inside. He spots an adult male unconscious on the floor, trapped by a bit of fallen roof and a couple of knocked-over tables.

Kade leaps over the chairs and tables that litter the floor of the abandoned room to get to the man. The tables are a little heavier than he is expecting and take some strain to pull off of the civilian’s body. His efforts kick up some of the dust, and he coughs against it. His eyes water, but he can’t give up.

So focused on getting the man free, he almost doesn’t see the metal arm swinging right at his face. He reels back, heart pounding like mad, trying to brace for the impact that’s sure to mean a painful death…

And then, he sees an all-too familiar hose wrap around the metal arm and stop it in its tracks.


	10. The Walk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danger, danger, danger. Warning. At breaking point. Something has to give.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one time where I will insist on listening to the song the chapter is named after, so pull up “The Walk” by Imogen Heap before you read on.

            They’ve responded to much, much worse emergencies than this one in the past. Heatwave lassos the arm of the street cleaner with his hose and yanks hard, straining to keep the machine from continuing its rampage. The ceiling is still collapsing, so Boulder dives in to prop it up, at least over where Kade is still crouched.

            Kade doesn’t hesitate to drape the unconscious man’s body over his shoulder and get out of there. He sees Dani rush towards the fireman out of the corner of his optic. Just over the sound of working gears and smashing, he hears her shout, “ _What_ were you _thinking!?_ ”

            Moments later, the others have the street cleaner deactive. Heatwave pulls his hose back while Boulder and Graham examine the machine for what went wrong. With the emergency over, he can listen in to the humans. It would be a safe bet to say that he would have at least a few words for the fireman later.

            “I was thinking that I was just across the street and that people needed me,” Kade snaps back, carrying the man over to Blades so he can be flown to the hospital.

            “You don’t have any protective gear! We had no idea where you were, and you didn’t comm. in before leaping into action,” chastises Chief Burns. He hasn’t raised his voice a lot yet, but the look he’s giving his eldest son would wither a weaker man. “You could’ve been killed if no one else had called the situation in.”

            “Good thing they _did_ call it in. Lucky me. Dad, I would have comm.ed as soon as I got the civilian out of the way. He wasn’t exactly going to move himself.”

            “And in that time, the roof could have come down on you both! In our line of work, sometimes putting your life on the line is necessary, but there’s a clear line between necessary and unnecessary risk, and you’ve crossed it.” He gives Kade a very stern glare. “Now, get home.”

            Heatwave almost chuckles, but then Kade says, “Hayley is waiting across the street. Can I at least walk her home first?”

            His father’s face shifts to a very pinched expression. “Fine,” he sighs. “But don’t think this conversation is over.”

            “Of course not,” the fireman mutters. Normally, the truck-former would feel a lot more satisfaction over his partner’s situation, but the mention of Hayley has spoiled any chance of happiness tonight.

            “I’ll drive them,” Heatwave says, stepping in.

            “Hayley and I walked here,” Kade counters. “Won’t she wonder why I’m driving you back?”

            He transforms into truck mode. “Could always tell her you ordered me here for the emergency and have to take me back.”

            “Fine.” He doesn’t seem too thrilled by the idea. Probably wanted a nice, private moment with his girlfriend. Heatwave feels more than a little guilty pleasure at being able to keep that from him.

~----------~

            Kade makes Heatwave park by the street so he can at least walk Hayley to the door. If his date has to be interrupted early, he’s still going to milk every last moment with her he can. He spends several minutes just standing at her door with her, staring into her eyes.

           Hayley is actually the one to initiate their kiss. Her lips are as soft as always, but every time feels like the first, fireworks exploding in his stomach. He cradles her head in his hand and brushes a thumb over her cheek.

            Before he can really get into the kiss, though, a horn honks behind him. Hayley breaks away from him with a laugh. “What was that? Accidentally press a button?”

            “No, he’s just a temperamental piece of machinery sometimes,” he grumbles. If only she could know just how true that is. “I better get home and check it out. Have a good night.”

            “You, too,” she says, letting herself into her house. “Bye, Kade.”

            He waves to her one last time before heading back up the walkway to the street. Inside Heatwave’s cab, he glares at the screen on the dashboard. “Alright, what was that about?”

            It takes a moment for the mech’s face to pop up on the screen. “Chief wants us back ASAP. Do you really think I’m going to let you get away from a lecture?” His engine starts with a deep, almost angry rumble before they take off.

            “No, of course you wouldn’t, but I wasn’t exactly trying to escape. Just collecting one last luxury before the prison sentence.”

            “How melodramatic. Tell me, what would Hayley be getting right now if I hadn’t swooped in and saved you? Because I’m sure she would _love_ to hold a jar of your ashes.”

            His cheeks suddenly feel hot. He’s sure they must be a nice shade of pink right now. “You didn’t swoop in and save me; I had everything under control.”

            “I could tell from the metal that was about to crush your skull in.”

            “I know how to dodge. If you hadn’t shown up when you did--”

            “Uh-huh. And that’s why you weren’t moving.

            “I’m not _useless_ without you!” He’s starting to feel pressure building in his head. Kade hasn’t felt this much anger towards anyone, not even Morocco, in a long time. There’s tightness in his shoulders, which are slowly rising towards his ears, and he squeezes the steering wheel.

            “I never said you were, _but I’m beginning to think it!_ ” When they arrive back at the Firehouse, Kade tries to leap out, but he ends up slamming into a stubbornly shut door. “What in Primus' name were you thinking back there, disappearing without anyone’s knowledge and running into a dangerous situation without even a helmet!?”

            “I was thinking I’m an adult entitled to a private life and that I’m a rescuer who was right there when the danger arose! You’ve reminded me of this before: _first through the door_. I wasn’t about to let some poor civilian _die_ just because the rest of the team wasn’t there!” He grits his teeth and slams against the truck’s door again, trying to get out.

            “You’re lucky the team _got_ there, though! Even if the machine hadn’t killed you, do you know how close you were to the roof caving in on you!?”

            “Risk. Is. Part. Of. The. Job. If I hadn’t acted, I would have doomed that man to certain death!” He’s practically screaming now. Even as he’s shoving against his partner’s door, he’s giving the screen one of the fiercest, meanest looks he’s ever mustered.

            “AND IF WE HADN’T BEEN CALLED, YOU BOTH WOULD HAVE DIED,” Heatwave bellows back.

His door opens suddenly, throwing Kade out onto the hard floor. He rolls. Dizzy from the sudden motion and all the blood rushing to his head but not quite feeling the pain of the fall yet, the redhead can only growl at his partner as he transforms back into robot mode.

There’s no telling how things might have gone if Chief Burns hadn’t stepped in at that moment. “Settle down, both of you!” he barks. Both of them stop yelling at each other immediately, but they’re both still visibly seething. “Now, I don’t know what’s going on with you two—”

“What’s going on, _Dad_ ,” interrupts Kade, jabbing a finger at Heatwave, “is that I’m _done_. I’m not speaking to him or even _looking_ at him outside of missions from this point on.”


	11. Ignorance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life in the Burns family starts to feel like a tightrope walk.

            Chase attempts to offer consolation to Heatwave, but his efforts are effectively dismissed with a snarl. It is clear to him that whatever subtext is exacerbating the situation between the team’s firefighters has reached such a degree that there is no longer any solution he can offer. He can only hope that the two of them reconcile and return to normal function in a timely manner.

            He feels useless. It is an unpleasant feeling to have, but it is also one he cannot banish with any sense of ease. Becoming useless is his ultimate fear. He received a taste of what it is like when the MorBot temporarily took over their rescue positions.

            The serving he has now is even more bitter.

            Lost emotionally and slightly dazed, he ambles over to the television area. He is not even sure what program is being broadcasted, and he gets the distinct impression that Boulder and Blades are only pretending to pay attention as well. It is just the impression of togetherness and normality that they truly need.

            He can sense that the other two have questions, and Chase has a few of his own. Not a one of them will be vocalized, though. They have not the slightest idea what might set off their leader again. Making the situation worse is a risk they do not want to take, but they have no method to make it better, either.

            Anxiety reverberates between their EM fields, as much as Chase tries to quell it in his own. With this new divide in their team dynamics, the future is murky and bleak.

~----------~

            Dani barely notices when Kade locks himself in his room after their father lectures him. She thinks it’s just a mild tantrum and that he’ll get over it. However, when a few days pass and he’s still in a foul mood, she has to be a little surprised.

            It’s not exactly like holding grudges is out of character for her eldest brother (because, boy, can he when he really sets his mind on it). He’s definitely more taken to short fits and pouting, but he can be stubborn enough to really hold on to his hatred if he wants. But therein lies the problem: Kade usually reserves his grudges for those he genuinely _hates_.

            And as much as they put on an act sometimes, there’s no more hatred between their firefighters. In fact, she would put good money on Kade _loving_ Heatwave. Maybe not in the same way he loves Hayley, enraptured by the blonde as he is, maybe more platonically, but it’s love all the same.

            Kade is a jerk, no doubt about it, and sometimes his rudeness has to be tempered by a cooler personality, but when it comes to people he cares about, he always pulls back the moment he realizes he’s actually hurt them. It’s unlike him to be so cold.

            She tries to get him out of his room to talk in a number of ways. Sometimes, she asks nicely. Sometimes, she’s forceful. Sometimes, she tries to bribe him or goad him with a challenge. Sometimes, she screams. Nothing really seems to work. The rest of the family tries in their own ways, usually to the same result.

            Graham occasionally gets a confused groan or a grumbled, “Nerd,” though, and Dani thinks that’s progress.

            Days pass, and it begins to press on her how quiet the comm.-lines are without the constant back and forth the two resident hotheads usually have. It’s not just that their voices are missing, though. Without them arguing, there’s no more of the Chief cutting off their more ridiculous fights. The ‘Bots themselves are bouncing off of each other’s words less, too. It’s almost like the whole family has chopped communication down to the bare essentials. It makes everything feel drained and lifeless.

            Dani isn’t always sure if it’s _less_ or _more_ stressful when Kade and Heatwave are out on missions alone together. On one hand, they’re away from the base, easing the pressure of stepping around fragile emotions. On the other hand, there is always the frightening possibility that one or both of them could snap, and no one would be around to stop them from doing something stupid and/or dangerous.

And while the tension mostly dissipates when the two of them aren’t there to be moody with everyone, there’s still a slightly suffocated feeling to the entire base. Blades seems too afraid to speak up about how the situation is affecting him or any of his needs (though she’s been sure to take the best care of him she can).

Chase has been especially distant. He’s always been a little formal and stoic, but he’s been especially stiff over the course of things. Polite as ever, yes, but in a more detached way than is normal for him. She can’t quite decide how rational a response it is to her turning down his feelings, but it hurts in a “vaguely bad feeling” way.

            In any case, there has to be something she can salvage here.

~----------~

            They do not watch romantic comedies anymore. Chase is not certain whether he is grateful or if he misses them. There was both an ache and a sense of…escapism in seeing someone else’s love story end happily. It became obvious quickly that the same did not hold for Heatwave. The movies only seemed to aggravate his anger.

            Patrol was already pleasant to begin with, but it has become even more alluring in the past few days. It is a relief to be away from the base. He cannot remember being under so much stress before, though it may only be because he is experiencing it in the moment, whereas other times have already passed, making them seem more manageable in hindsight.

            In this moment, he wishes Kade and Heatwave were arguing again. At least that would be better than the long stretches of agonizing silence when they are around.

           Absorbed in his thoughts, he fails to notice Dani's presence in the bunker until she clears her throat. Restraint keeps him from leaping in shock. He gives himself just enough to calm his nerves before addressing her. “What brings you here?” Evidently not Blades, or else she would have approached him instead.

            “Answers. What part of ‘I care about you’ means ‘treat me like a stranger’?” she asks, a scowl on her face.

            “Ah, uh, I thought you would require some space,” he replies, ducking his face away. He does not wish for her to see the shame visible there. “I did not want my presence to become uncomfortable after you uncovered my secret.”

            “So you withdrew.” She steps back into his line of vision, not letting him hide that easily. “Did you ever think that maybe it would be _more_ uncomfortable with you acting so aloof?”

            Chase’s optics dart around quickly before he answers, “I…did not.” He feels like he should add more there, but he is not at all sure what. His jaw hangs slightly open as he tries to will something more out. He cannot manage anything intelligent.

            Dani takes mercy on him, speaking before he can make any more of a fool of himself. “So we’re clear now, right? No more awkwardly avoiding me or treating things between us like a delicate vase?”

            He almost points out that intangible emotions and relationships are impossible to break as physical objects do, but decides against it at the last moment. He thinks this must be a figure of speech—one more easy to decipher than some, at that. “Yes, I believe so.”

            “Good,” she says with a firm nod. “Because things have been weird enough with Kade and Heatwave being distant. We don’t need anything else going wrong in this family.”

            Chase sighs as she leaves. This makes the situation so much more difficult than she believes. But now, he has no chance of arguing. He does not wish to upset her. The effects of this conversation wobble the tenuous balance he has been trying to build, and there is no telling where the weight will fall.

            He can only pray to Primus that the odds are in his favor.


	12. Precious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cody isn't handling the change in the atmosphere well and sets out to find a solution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a feeling this chapter went in a direction I wasn't entirely expecting.
> 
> Probably because this chapter went in a direction I wasn't entirely expecting.

            The longer the stress in his family stretches out, the more Cody feels it crushing down on him. He feels completely powerless to stop it, despite his best efforts to patch things between Kade and Heatwave.

            He has tried giving suggestions and trying to get them to talk, but they refuse. He tries playing war movies for Heatwave, but he acts disinterested for once. He tries telling Kade there are people asking for his autograph, but all he gets is a “Tch” from behind a closed door. They only seem to drift farther apart as time passes.

            The boy feels lost. After all the effort he put in to get the firefighters working together in the first place, things just keep unraveling.

            In baseball practice, his pitches start to get weak. He can’t seem to muster the emotional strength to power his physical strength. He can hardly focus. It’s just like a weight has dropped in his chest, pushing him down, and he just can’t get rid of it. It feels cold.

            At lunch, he slumps over the table and sighs, picking at his sandwich instead of eating it. A hand falls on his shoulder, and it takes him a minute to lift his head enough to see who it belongs to. His father has a worried expression on his face. “Is everything all right, son?”

            “Yeah,” Cody replies in a voice laden with sad insincerity. “Just thinking about Kade and Heatwave. I thought the two of them would make up by now.”

            A sequence of emotions he can’t quite read pass over his father’s face so quickly he almost doubts the expression had changed to begin with. Chief Burns exhales slowly from his nose. “Me too. But we can only do so much to help those two before we only make things worse. I don’t know all the details, but some of what they’re going through is very complicated and personal.”

            That response makes the kid frown. He can’t exactly argue, but there’s nothing satisfying about hearing that, either.

            Cody picks his sandwich up and takes a bite, chewing thoughtfully. He’s smarter than he thinks a lot of adults give him credit for. Everyone being so quiet and mysterious about the situation just becomes frustrating, but not even an angry frustration. It’s more of a gloomy, confused frustration he doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe just yet, which just makes the whole thing worse because he can’t even put a label on it and make it more manageable.

            When he’s finished eating, he takes the hoverboard out to go visit the Greenes. Doc Greene is already fast at work on some new invention or other when he arrives. He kicks his hoverboard up into his hand. “Hey, Doc! Whatcha working on?”

            “Cody, good to see you! Well, there’s been some concern that using the computer is lowering health because less people are exercising, but computers have become invaluable in work, keeping track of data, communication, and all manner of functions. So I’m trying to create an exercise-powered computer. Ideally, it will convert kinetic energy into electricity, getting people moving without cutting out too much time from their computer usage.”

            “Noble,” he says with a little less enthusiasm than he can usually muster. It really is a cool idea, but he still has a lot on his mind.

            “You sound glum,” the scientist observes. “Oh! You could try my new Mood Modulator.” He briefly abandons his project to dig another machine out of a nearby cabinet. “With this device, you can zap a little happy back into your life and—”

            “No thanks,” he says quickly. “It’s just that, well.” Cody sighs, trying to mine for the words for what he wants to express. “Sometimes I think my family leaves me out of the loop because I’m a kid. Something is wrong with Kade and Heatwave, but all Dad will tell me is that they have something ‘personal’ going on.”

            Doc Greene hums pensively. “I’m sure they don’t mean to make you feel left out. There are just some things that take time to understand. Imagine yourself as little as a year ago. Wouldn’t you say you have a much better understanding of yourself and the world around you than you did then?”

            “Yeah, I guess so…”

            “Beyond that, aging is much more than the visible physical changes. Some people feel uncomfortable explaining certain concepts until a person is old enough to be experiencing them. It’s not that we don’t trust your intelligence. On the contrary, you know Frankie is my little Curie, and even I have things I would hold off on telling her for at least a few more years.

            “Of course, there is also the possibility that Kade and Heatwave confided in the Chief and asked him not to tell anyone,” he finishes, turning his attention back to the experimental computer.

            The reply isn’t completely satisfying, but it does make him feel a little better. Enough that he can smile, at least. “Where’s Frankie?”

            Doc fiddles with some circuitry as he speaks. “She just got back from walking Edison and Aristotle, so she’s probably with them.”

~----------~

            “Fudge always makes me feel better, so hopefully it will work for you, too,” Frankie says, measuring out the vanilla extract.

            “Thanks, Frankie.”

            The two kids have been trying different things to see if Cody’s mood could be improved even a little more. They tried playing with the dogs, which at least got him laughing for a little while, until he remembered having to give up Buster to his real owner and the sting of that memory made things less fun. Basketball is usually a good go-to, but he didn’t feel much like jumping, making it a very short game. Video games were next, but he couldn’t seem to press the controls fast enough.

            The next obvious answer was sugar, so now they’re in the kitchen. When the fudge cools, they cut it into squares and each take a piece.

            The chocolaty goodness melts right in his mouth, and his spirits lift. “Noble! Thanks, Frankie. This is exactly what I needed!”

            She twirls a spoon in one hand. “Good food is always the answer. Well, to the blues, anyway,” she laughs. “Not so much to quantum physics or extragalactic astronomy, just to name a few things.”

            He looks down at the pan thoughtfully. “Hey, do you think I could bring some home to Kade?” The treats are pretty effective in their emotional adjustment, and without the risk of a potentially hazardous machine. Maybe they can work on his brother, too.

            “Sure thing,” she says. She scarfs down her square of fudge faster than she normally would and finds a disposable container for his travel home. She makes sure he has enough to share with his family, but still keeps a lot for herself and the Doc. “Good luck with your brother. If only the ‘Bots could eat human food, too.”

            “Yeah, if only.”

~----------~

            The light wind against him as he races home from his visit with treasure—sweet, chocolaty treasure. Cody is tempted to eat all the fudge himself, really, but he knows that if there’s the chance of this repairing things at home, it’s well worth the restraint.

            It’s a pleasant surprise to find Kade out of his room for something other than a meal or mission for once in what feels like ages, but the good feeling wears off before long. The fireman looks completely haggard. His gaze at the T.V. seems almost blank, and there are purple rings under his eyelids. His orangish red hair is mussed and kind of dirty.

            He looks just short of a disaster area, to put it bluntly.

            His eldest brother’s appearance is so off-putting that Cody almost hesitates in offering him the sweet. However, he reminds himself that the whole point of bringing them home was to try to help him. The boy takes a steadying breath before selecting one of the squares and holding it out to his brother. “Would you like some fudge?”

            It takes a moment for Kade to even notice he’s being offered anything. It takes a little longer for him to respond in any meaningful way. He accepts the treat without a word and eats it in a much more delicate manner than the youngest of the Burns family ever expected to see.

            He watches in hopeful expectance for any kind of change in his brother, inspecting his expression with a careful gaze. There’s almost nothing, but there is something minutely lighter in his eyes for a moment. “Thanks,” the redhead grumbles. His voice sounds a little rough from the abnormal length of his silence.

            The change is much smaller than Cody had been hoping for, though. At dinner, he’s happy to see that Kade has at least showered since that afternoon, but there’s still an aura of exhaustion around him that can make anyone else feel tired just by looking at him.


	13. Danger Zone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A breath of air.

            There’s no way for Dani to properly describe the incredible sensation of soaring through the air in freefall. The wind rushes up to meet her, slowed only by the fabric stretched under her arms and between her legs, and whips at any part of her face not protected by her helmet and visor. She can feel, not just her heart pumping, but the blood coursing through her veins, too. Adrenaline surges through her. Time slows.

            It’s exhilarating in a way that piloting could never be. Oh, she would never give up rescues or flying Blades for the joy of it in a million years. That’s likewise fun in ways wingsuit flying couldn’t match. But the danger and thrill of being in the air without a sentient metal shell to protect or limit her is something else.

            In either case, she knows she was made for the sky. The ground is all well and good, and she always knows she has to land sometime, but it feels binding. The air is free and happy.

            Taylor is several feet below her and off a ways to her side. He jumped before she did. He’s a little more experienced with this particular sport than she is, and he pretty much sealed the order with a single comment.

_“Ladies first,” he said, grinning charmingly and giving a little half-bow._

_“Do you see any around here?” she teased. “Being a woman doesn’t make me a_ lady. _”_

_He looked abashed briefly, but cleared his throat. “Fair enough.” And with that, he leapt out of the plane._

            Being here and with him is melting all her troubles away, at least for now. Her mind is far away from petty family arguments and drifting in a euphoric wonderland of the great blue.

            That is, until Taylor deploys his parachute only to find a massive hole down the center. For a moment, Dani panics as her boyfriend plummets through the air. Without a parachute, there’s nothing to stop him from becoming a pancake on the ground. Within a second, however, she calms, and the steel nerves it takes to be a rescuer take over.

            This rescue will take a lot of calculation and skill. She has to catch up with him, but if she doesn’t match his velocity before actually touching him, she could just end up hurting him or pushing him down faster. Luckily, the task is much easier when you rule the skies.

            Dani folds in her arms and legs, trying to reduce her surface area as much as possible, and tilts her body downward. She speeds downward, gradually unfurling and leveling out her body until she glides right up close to Taylor. Finally close enough and slow enough to safely grab him, she does.

            As soon as she’s sure she has him and he’s secure, she yanks the cord to deploy her parachute. The cords jerk a little at their combined weight, but the two pilots are still light enough together to avoid catastrophe.

            They drift to the safety of a nice, grassy field. Steady back on the ground, Taylor lets out a sigh of relief and removes his helmet. “Wow. I already knew you were an angel, but now I know you were sent to watch over me.”

            Dani laughs and elbows him in the arm. “You sure know how to be corny, don’t you?”

            “Only when you’re around.” He grins. Gosh, his smile is gorgeous.

~----------~

            Chase is acutely aware when Dani returns from her date and joins them in the TV-area of the bunker (and pleasantly surprised to find the ache that the word “date” once inspired dulling). “Good afternoon,” he greets, tipping his helm in her direction.

            “Dani, nice save out there,” says Boulder, beaming.

            “You saw that?” she asks.

            “Cody showed us. And I didn’t even have to peek through my fingers.”

            “Alright, Blades! I’m proud of you!” She pats her partner on the knee before sitting down. She leans back into her seat slightly, a soft expression of contentment on her face. “So, what have you three been up to?”

            “Actually, we have been down here the entire day,” says Chase.

            Dani snorts at that. “Okay, now you’re being intentionally obtuse.”

            His optic ridges furrow. He had, in fact, been playing off of human sayings with his last comment, but now he is genuinely confused. “I am not an angle.”

            “It means you were playing dumb.”

            “Ah. Then yes, I was.”

            “Chase? Being deceptive for fun and without any kind of duty behind it? I never thought I would see the day,” Blades says.

            The atmosphere takes a decisive downturn, however, when a certain red truck rolls into the room. There is a surprising lethargic quality to Heatwave’s motion—and something very similar in Kade’s when he steps out of the truck’s cab. Everyone immediately stills and tenses, dreading what development might arise.

            Kade addresses them first. “Could you all, maybe, give us some space?” It is phrased almost like a request, but there is a degree of his normal biting tone returning to his voice. Chase makes note of it.

            Heatwave transforms back into his robot mode just as the chorus of protests begins. He points a finger at the door and orders, “Everyone out. Now.” He does not sound angry, precisely, but certainly severe. His glower around the room has everyone but Kade reluctantly shuffling out of the building. The two firefighters close the garage door firmly behind them.

            Outside, Blades paces impatiently. “Please, can’t we just listen a little?” He begs with a slight high-pitched whine to his voice. “We don’t even have to go back in if it might mess things up. I can just press an audial receptor to the garage door and—”

            Chase’s stern optics set on him. “Negative. Heatwave gave explicit orders not to disturb or listen in on their exchange. Doing so would be a direct violation of Rescue Bots command and both Earth and Cybertron social directives.”

            The helicopter-former’s frame is buzzing with palpable energy. He can hardly keep still, twitching his hands and moving his frame just to ease his nerves. “I’ve got to know what they’re saying! The wait is killing me. Not literally, praise the Matrix, but still!”

            Chase is conflicted over whether or not to agree. On one hand, he understands the value of keeping certain aspects of one’s life private and that one is not obligated to divulge any or all of their “business,” even in many legal matters. On the other hand, he, too, experiences great inquisitiveness and anticipation for the results of this encounter. At the very least, the impact it will have on team dynamics is of high interest for him.

            “We’ll find out soon enough, Blades. Just be patient,” Dani says. She does not appear to realize or care that she is touching the police ‘Bot’s leg for no discernable reason. The best he can surmise is that she still wishes to be sitting down and that he is merely the closest solid object she can support herself against.

            Regardless, the proximity allows him to see her expression. Despite her confident words, she is evidently quite worried herself. “We cannot know the outcome until there is an outcome to be observed,” Chase assures them both. It is perhaps not the most comforting statement possible, but it is what he has to offer.

            Boulder, thankfully, has much more helpful words for them both. “Neither of them looked angry, and Heatwave’s electromagnetic field was stable. Safe to say this should end well.”

            “Wait, you guys have electromagnetic fields?” Dani suddenly becomes much more fascinated by her hand on Chase’s leg. “They must be pretty weak, or else we couldn’t have spent so much time around you guys without getting sick or hurt. But you can sense each other’s?” she asks, glancing around at each of them.

            “I can from a longer distance than the others because of my sensors, but yeah,” the bulldozer explains. “And we can feel each other’s emotions through them if we’re in close enough proximity.”

            “ _And_ if _someone_ doesn’t try to hide their field,” adds Blades. “Some Cybertronians are better at it than others. I once heard about this one Seeker who earned the nickname Pretty Poison because he could purr sweet, dangerous lies in other mechs’ audials. There were also separate tales of a grounder and a triple-changer who could both sell you your own property because they were just that good at manipulating their fields.”

            Chase shakes his helm. “The triple-changer was not as talented as his reputation claimed. He was very skilled in the art of manipulation, but only to the point where he could sell contraband and prevent other, stronger criminals from offlining him.”

            The subject obviously interests Dani. He officially has her full attention. “You actually met this mech? What was his name?”

            “I believe the closest English translation of his designation is Octane, and his arrest was the last I had participated in as an Enforcer before joining Rescue Force Sigma-17.”

            Chase continued the story for as long as the others posed inquiries about his experience. The subject proved so effective in gaining their attention that they forgot, at least for the time-being, about the duo conversing in the bunker.


	14. The Dumbing Down of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting things out in the open...sort of.

            If Kade doesn’t sleep well the first night, it’s only because he’s still fuming. He sleeps well enough the night after. By the third night, though, the silence starts to get to him, and he finds himself waking up frequently for it.

            He’s sure, at first, that if only Heatwave was being closed off, he wouldn’t have cared that much. But once missions became quiet time, too, he decided everyone else must be punishing him. That’s the only reasonable explanation, really. They know the lack of jokes and jabs and stories will get to him once his temper cools off.

            Well, he won’t let them win. He refuses to be the one to break first. If they want him back, they’re going to have to come begging. (Forget, of course, that Dani already tried that once.)

            Turns out that’s much easier to think than do. He’s used to noise and color and action. He revels in it. Separating himself from that world, even if only partially—nothing short of severe injury could ever make him leave the action—is taking him away from his domain, his natural habitat. Can anyone really expect him to be in the proper state of mind under those conditions?

            And Heatwave…Kade misses Heatwave a lot more than he ever imagined he could. More than he would ever admit, too. They still work together on missions, but it’s not quite the same. It has left an unexpected and unpleasant hole.

            He couldn’t just make up and go back to normal, though. His pride can’t take that hit.

            The ‘Bots are amazing, and there’s a lot they couldn’t have done without them, but that’s part of what scares him. Sometimes, it feels like he’s forgetting what it’s like to save the day without a living robot covering him. The only thing worse than the quiet and dullness of avoiding everyone is the sense of there being nothing he can do.

            Heatwave all but said he thought Kade was useless without him. Said he “swooped in and saved” him. That stings still, and as much as he wants to return to the way things were, he can’t just let what the ‘Bot said go. (Can’t stop thinking about how the mech so easily confirmed one of his hidden insecurities.)

            And if he’s really as helpless as he feels, it makes him fear for a day when they may not have the Rescue Bots. They could return to their home planet. Heatwave could finally get what he’s been asking for and run off to help Team Prime. Someone could try that creepy mind-control trick again and _succeed_ this time. He knows logically which idea should be the scariest, but in his mind, they all have him paralyzed with fear.

            For days, his emotions churn within him, only settling long enough for him to get his job done. He can only sleep in bits and pieces here or there. That loss is starting to take him down faster than everything else.

            It’s only for his own sanity that Kade stops isolating himself. He doesn’t take any big leaps to start; he just moves to the living room and sits down. He hardly feels like he has any energy.

            He isn’t actually sure how long he spends just sitting there, staring, until there’s suddenly a big brown square in the corner of his vision. It takes him a moment to notice the arm attached to the square, and a little longer to see his brother’s face. All he knows is that that was the first step to finding normalcy again.

~----------~

            Heatwave notices Kade’s health deteriorating. How could he not? Even if the fireman is intent on ignoring him as much as possible, it doesn’t mean he can do the same. His very spark seems to rebel against the idea of it.

            But that sure as Pit doesn’t mean he’s going to say a word about it. He shouldn’t have to be the one to make nice with the brat if he decided they weren’t on speaking terms. He isn’t going to plead for forgiveness for rightfully calling him out on his reckless behavior, or whatever it is Kade wants.

            Maybe he wants them to really never speak to each other again. He ignores the almost physical pain that idea causes. The more time passes, the more he gets used to the fact that everything about his love hurts.

            At a certain point, he seriously has to wonder why so much of art and storytelling is devoted to the wonder of love when, from his perspective, there’s so little wonderful about it. All falling in love does is put a quick and easy way to harm you in the hands of someone who may want to do exactly that.

            He knows, somewhere in the back of his processor, that he’s hurting his team in turn. He can tell they’re being quieter than usual, but he can’t find it in himself to be concerned. He couldn’t take much noise with his nerves as short as they are (and getting shorter with each passing day). It doesn’t feel like a stretch of the imagination to say they’re just showing respect for his tumultuous…situation.

            But it’s getting to the point where he doesn’t know where to turn for distraction. Heatwave feels like he’s exhausted his ability to train until something clears up, but he can’t find himself relaxing enough to read or watch T.V. Driving around and around just makes him feel dizzy. Walks begin to feel pointless once he’s taken enough of them.

            Under some slightly different conditions, he might have tried “self-servicing,” but, in this particular circumstance, even considering it feels too shameful.

            Through it all, though, he’s sure that Kade doesn’t even notice. He probably doesn’t even care. He must think that what he’s doing to himself and Heatwave is perfectly justified.

            At least, he thinks so until they’re returning from a mission one day. Kade still looks terrible, but he definitely looks healthier than he has since the fight. He also looks sad, though, without the cameras there for him to smile to. The redhead’s tired eyes shift over to his screen.

            “Maybe…” He clears his throat. “Maybe we should talk.”

            To borrow an Earth phrase, it’s like music to his audials.

~----------~

            Kade can see from the minute they roll into the bunker that everyone around tenses up when they see the firefighting duo. He can also see that three ‘Bots and a human are too big of an audience for him to have a proper conversation with his partner.

            When Heatwave comes to a stop inside, the fireman opens his door and gets out. He wants to be blunt and rude, but only a little venom creeps into his voice as says, “Could you all, maybe, give us some space?”

            Blades starts to say something about wanting to watch, he thinks. It’s hard to tell over the sounds of Boulder’s and Dani’s comments. Whatever they’re saying, they get cut off by Heatwave transforming, and his deep, rumbly tone commanding, “Everyone out. Now.” He points a finger at the exit and gives a hard look around the room.

            No one dares disobey him. Kade almost feels impressed, but he’s more focused on shutting the door so that no one can eavesdrop.

            Once he’s certain they have the most security he can actually secure, the redhead sits down somewhere slightly elevated from the ground. “We can’t go on like this.”

            “Gee, you think?” snarks Heatwave.

            Kade gives him a flat look. “Yeah, I have a brain, and I know this will come as a huge shock to you and all, but it works.” That earns him a snort, which makes him grit his teeth in an attempt to contain a wave of anger. “I don’t regret what I did at the diner.”

            “That’s what this is about? That was rash and s—”

            “Let me finish!” snaps Kade. “Yeah, it was dangerous and I could have gotten hurt, and I’m sorry for scaring everyone, but I don’t regret it. Regret not telling anyone where I was? That was careless, and I shouldn’t have done it. But I will never be sorry for putting my life on the line to do my job.”  He huffs and sets fierce eyes on stubborn optics. “Do you really expect me to believe you would have done any different?”

            “I have metal plating and better resistance to damage than you do,” the truck-former points out.

            “Yeah, but do you think I’d be a good rescuer if I didn’t make that kind of judgment call?”

            Heatwave looks up at the ceiling and works his jaw in small enough motion to only be noticeable to someone watching carefully. When his gaze finally lowers back to Kade, he says, “I think some of your judgment calls are better than others.”

            “And this one is?”

            “Not your worst.”

            It’s Kade’s turn to snort. This doesn’t feel normal, but the moment isn’t totally surreal, either. It’s in this weird place between feeling home and in a strange land. It feels like a good move, whatever it is.

            “So, does this mean we’re talking outside of missions again?”

            The redhead grins. “I knew you’d miss my charming company.”

~----------~

            Heatwave is actually amazed at how much good the conversation does him. By the time they let the others back in, his electromagnetic field is rolling with happiness.

            Boulder seems to be the only one who notices, giving him a discreet thumbs-up. Dani wouldn’t be expected to sense it, but she and Blades seem to have twin looks of awe at Chase, whom just looks like normal Chase. He would have to ask later.

            The only thing left that causes him any stress is just one teeny-tiny, little thought he has as the humans head up to the main floor of the building: _‘Should I tell him?’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I could tell you the worst is over now, but that would be a flat-out lie.


	15. Metal Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The calm after the storm. After several storms, actually, and probably really only in between the storms to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter on will contain spoilers for Changes. If you haven't seen it, please go do so, if you can.
> 
> I did say I was considering it, but I almost DIDN'T have this fic affected by the events of that episode. What happened? Well, I wrote chapter 14 and the end of 13 and realized that they were basically a perfect lead-up to the episode. Whoops.
> 
> As such, this chapter picks up right where that episode ends.

            Just as everything is looking happy and back to normal, of course something has to come tear all of that up. Does it really come as a surprise that the something here happens to be Dr. Morocco?

            Between the fatigue from running around, trying to put out his unnatural disasters and the defeat of knowing the villain has invaded their base in more ways than one (and not knowing just how much knowledge and tech he has taken from that), Dani feels about ready to collapse. Blades is kind enough to offer a hand to use as a chair.

            The question remains what to do. How long will it take Chase to catalogue every missing piece of equipment? Can he do it now, or should everyone take a break first? It’s been a busy day, and everyone looks tired, even the ‘Bots.

            The answer comes in the form of the Burns patriarch clapping his hands once and announcing that he’s going to make dinner. Must mean they’re going to try to relax for the time being. Dani thinks she can accept that; she hadn’t realized she was starving until he spoke.

            Moods lighten again at dinner. Food definitely helps, but part of it’s in the shift of focus, provided by Kade smirking and saying, “So, how sweet is it that Heatwave has a third mode, eh? How many ‘Bots can say that?”

            “Chase met one before,” says Dani. “Back on Cybertron, before he was a Rescue Bot. He still did law enforcement back then, and there was this slimy, manipulative, cowardly triple-changer by the name of Octane. Mech had a talent for synthesizing non-regulation fuel and selling it on their equivalent of the black market.”

            Chief Burns raises his eyebrows at her. “I’ve never heard this story. How did you?”

            “Chase told us—meaning Blades, Boulder, and I—while Heatwave and Kade were making up after their little lovers’ spat.”

            “Hey, it was _not_ a lovers’ spat,” the fireman protests, jabbing his fork in her direction. “I _have_ a girlfriend, in case you’ve forgotten. Which reminds me, didn’t you have a date with _Taylor_ that day? And yet I know more about what happened with _Chase_ than how things went with your _boyfriend_.”

            The pilot blushes at the implications there and flounders for an answer. She really doesn’t know why only one of those things stuck in her mind and not the other. “Well, we were more focused on seeing _you_ back to normal at the time, and Chase’s story was more relevant to the topic at hand,” she defends. It seems like a reasonable enough answer. “Besides, the ‘Bots mentioned Cody showing them how my date went, so it didn’t seem like a stretch to assume everyone already knew.”

            Everyone’s eyes turn on Cody, expecting answers. He laughs a little nervously and says, “I was on monitor duty, and I saw Taylor’s parachute had a hole in it, so I was about to tell the team, but Dani handled it.”

            There’s usually a rule against using the comm.-tab at the dinner table, but in this instance, they can make an exception. The family gathers around Cody’s chair as he pulls up the video of the rescue and lets it play.

            “Impressive, calculating wind resistance on the fly like that,” Graham says. “Uh, no pun intended.” An unspoken “for once” hangs in the air.

            “Pfft. _I_ could do that,” Kade replies.

            Dani, still glowing from the attention, lifts an eyebrow at him and cocks a hip. “Oh really? Do you even know what wind resistance is?”

            “I _did_ graduate high school, you know.”

            “You make it hard to remember sometimes,” she teases. That gets a harrumph and a crossing of his arms from the redhead.

~----------~

            Chase meticulously checks each and every piece of technology listed in their database and present in the secret level of their base of operations. This could take quite some time, and he is certain that he will have to mark where he left off on the list and take a break at some point, but it is important that the work get done.

            Heatwave is pacing back and forth while his SIC performs this important task. The police-mech can see him enter and leave the corner of his vision every so often. “We have to figure out what he knows, and we have to know what he’s planning. Do you think he’s going to let out our secret?”

            “It is a possibility,” the blue Autobot acknowledges. “Should he do so, we must remember what the Chief said long ago: saving people is more important than maintaining our cover. We have come a long way since then, and the likelihood of causing an island-wide panic has decreased greatly.”

            “But it could still happen.”

            “…Affirmative.”

            He attempts to shake the fear of Griffin Rock’s potential rejection of their true nature and resumes his work. Behind him, Heatwave continues pacing. His EM field is ebbing and flowing, blaring a clear message of quarreling emotion through the space between them. Chase holds in a sigh, marks his place on the list, and turns to his leader. “There is something else bothering you.” It is a statement, not a question, because he refuses to let the mech be evasive.

            There is a minute deviation in the almost rhythmic palpitation of his field. “You seem calm,” comes the rumbled response.

            “And my controlled demeanor disturbs you?” He tilts his head to one side and stares at the now-triple-changer with sharp, assessing optics.

            “No, it’s not that it’s…When you told Dani you were attracted to her, and she turned you down, you were completely crushed emotionally, but now, you’re…You’re back to yourself. Calm. Completely normal, for you.”

            “You are suggesting that confessing your love to Kade might produce the same result for yourself,” he says the moment it clicks into place. Heatwave flinches, and Chase thinks perhaps he has stated it too bluntly. “My apologies. I meant only to assure I was properly understanding your situation.”

            “Right on the nose.”

            The car-former crinkles his optic ridges. “I have heard that attractive people smell nice, but I was unaware that olfactory sensors were involved in this matter otherwise.”

            “It’s a human phrase. It means you guessed what I was thinking exactly,” explains Heatwave. “Things are just starting to go well with Kade again, and I was wondering if I should tell him. I’m pretty sure his reaction won’t be too far off from Dani’s, but maybe after the initial…downswing, maybe this will pull up the last barrier to making things what they used to be.”

            Chase frowns. There is logic in Heatwave’s suggested course of action, but it may not produce the desired result. Kade is very different from Dani personality-wise, and the precise circumstances surrounding his and Heatwave’s relationship is vastly different. Further, there is one particular issue he must voice to the red mech. “I realize your love for him has caused you great pain, but was not the way things were unfavorable? You two once hated each other.”

            That, evidently, is not the reply Heatwave wishes to hear. He turns brusquely away and draws his field in tight. Chase recalculates his words and tries again. “Heatwave, I cannot tell you how to act. The decision is entirely yours. I can only advise you to think carefully and do what you feel is best for yourself. If you truly believe that telling Kade of your romantic attachment to him is proper, then that is your choice, and I wish you the best of luck.”

            The triple-changer remains still at first. Slowly, he relaxes, a sigh escaping him in a long hiss. “Thank you, Chase.”

            When the mech leaves, he does not return immediately to his work. He releases a deep sigh of his own, circles his shoulders, and tries to settle his own EM field back into a serene state.


	16. Hear Me Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When an opportunity presents itself...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...
> 
> Did I mention I'm currently expecting this fic to be about thirty chapters long? It could be less, but...

            “I never thought, after all the years I’ve taken you out fishing, I’d need to reteach you boating.” Chief Burns stands on the dock, looking down into Heatwave’s boat alt. at Kade.

            “Heyheyhey, he’s the one who needs the boating lesson, not me,” Kade protests.

            “Do you really think I’d let _him_ drive? Knowing his way around the _Darby Ava_ doesn’t mean he can handle my systems. He’d probably get my controls stuck.”

            “Oh, because I wrecked you when you were stuck in truck mode from that one virus, right? No, wait, you were perfectly fine. Shocker.”

            The policeman, to his credit, endures their interruptions and bickering and patiently explains to Heatwave how to use each of his controls. With the basic tutorial over, it’s time to take things out to sea. Chief Burns follows in the _Darby Ava_ as the triple-changer practices steering and changing speed. Further advice is given as the Chief sees it’s needed.

            Heatwave is actually pretty thankful for him watching over the process. On Cybertron, they don’t have parental figures quite in the same way humans do. The words that come closest translate more accurately to “constructor,” “creator,” or “mentor,” but none of them have the same connotation to Cybertronian sensibilities that “parent” does. There’s a bit of warmth missing there that prevents them from equaling each other.

            Still, he would say that he lucked out as far as mentors go. Inferno was probably nicer than most Cybertronians could have hoped to expect. Sometimes, he wonders what happened to him, his bondmates Red Alert and Firestar, and the latter’s mentee, Flareup. He tries not to think about what Optimus told them about being the last Rescue Bots. Maybe they just left the force and found new functions.

            He certainly hopes so.

            Chief Burns is not Inferno in several ways, but being trained in his new form by someone he respects and cares about—and who respects and cares about him back—is definitely the best way to have things.

            Kade’s presence isn’t a bad idea, either. Of course, there’s the obvious reason that it has to look like the fireman is the one practicing in case any other humans see them, and there’s the related fact that he has to be ready to pretend to be controlling him in case of the rescue. But there’s also the little fact that he’s been trying to think of a way to get the man alone for a little while so they can talk. Sending the Chief back ahead of them may give him just that chance.

            They’re out on the water for hours, working on each of his controls (minus the horn) and steering, trying any maneuvers that didn’t require him being too near the docks, in case of any accidents. Trying anything there will wait until another day.

            When the sun starts to set, Chief Burns comm.s them. “Alright, that’s good for today. Great progress Heatwave; I think you about have everything down. Let’s head in.”

            “Actually, Chief, if you don’t mind, I’d like to stay out here a little longer. You head back to shore,” the triple-changer says.

            “I rode out with you two,” he points out. “I need you to drive me back to the Firehouse with Kade.”

            “We’ll only be out a few more minutes. I just have one more thing I want to do.”

            “What do you—Oh.” The last word is spoken softly in realization. Heatwave has to wonder just how much the Burns’ father knows. “Well, just don’t be out too late.”

            “We won’t, I promise.”

            Kade is giving him a weird look when the comm. ends. “You just enjoy making me seasick, don’t you? So, what do you want to try? High-speed donuts?”

            “That’s—” He starts off growling, but stops himself. Giving in to the fireman’s provocations is admittedly fun at times, but now is not the time. Not with his intention, at least. Outside, the sunset is beautiful, and he can’t help thinking of those embarrassing romantic comedies the team has watched. “Not it,” he finishes in a much softer voice.

            He watches the man’s eyebrows crease further.

~----------~

            Heatwave is acting weird again, and not even the subtle weird from before. Kade can’t decide if it’s more, less, or equally worrying. He’d thought for sure they were on their way to being something akin to normal again.

            Memories of the red ‘Bot focusing his energy for the rescan trickle back to him. He’d spent a long time just staring at the mech’s face, not pacing or moving, just watching. He remembers just wanting to make sure his partner was okay. The same concern is finding its way back into him now. He hopes it’s just as unnecessary as it was then.

            “What’s bothering you?” he demands. If something is seriously wrong, more than what already has the rest of the team wringing their hands, then he has to know. He doesn’t like trouble he doesn’t know how to stop.

            Heatwave seems to struggle with himself briefly before saying, “Kade…”

            The fireman looks at the face on the center screen intently, making sure the mech knows he has his absolute, full attention. He can’t prepare himself for what he hears next, though.

            “I’m in love with you.”

            He freezes. No way he heard that right. He cleans an ear out with his pinky and asks, “What?” Maybe the time out in the water is getting to his head.

            The mech on the screen seems to deflate. “Are you really going to make me say it again?” He shuts his optics, sighs, and repeats, “I’m in love with you.”

            Dizziness hits him at the revelation. His emotions are a muddled mess. His thoughts are a jumble of _“He cherishes your partnership,” “little lover’s spat,”_ _“I knew you’d miss my charming company,”_ and Heatwave’s face so many different times and flashes of things he can’t quite place. “I’m—I—”

            It might be a good idea to actually figure out what he wants to say. It would be easier if he even knew what he’s feeling. Surprise, definitely, some because of the admission and some from his own confusion. It’s not negative, whatever it is, but it’s not elation or anything.

            He doesn’t return the mech’s feelings, he thinks. He’s sure. It’s not an issue of orientation; Kade has known for years that he’s not completely straight. There was a guy, Shawn, before Hayley, and Cybertronians are genderless besides, so even if Heatwave looks male, it’s not exactly…He means he doesn’t think that’s really the issue.

            No, Hayley and Kade himself are the thing. He loves Hayley, and he’s the monogamous type. He likes Heatwave a lot and considers him some kind of friend, but even if he could return the feeling, it would only be in some universe where he isn’t already with Hayley.

            Is he really even thinking about this? Is he seriously contemplating the fact that he could love the triple-changer, even if only in an alternate universe? The realization of this makes him recoil, but whether in disgust or fear of the truth or…whatever reason, he doesn’t know. He refuses to think about it further. He refuses to stay with this train of thought anymore. He can’t—

            His inner monologue is halted by Heatwave clearing his throat. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything?” He tries to make it sound growly, but even Kade can hear the nervousness there.

            “Heatwave…” He falters, choking on his own words. Struggling to get it out, though he doesn’t know why, he sighs and tries again. “Look, you’re…kind of cool, but I don’t…think of you that way. I’m in love with Hayley.” He wants to add a “sorry,” but it feels too embarrassing.

            “Oh. Right.” There’s a flatness to his tone that has Kade’s heart twinging. He wants to say something to fix it, but before he can, Heatwave quickly adds, “Well, your dad is probably waiting for us.”

            If the fireman squeezes his seat as they speed back to the dock, it’s only partially from how insanely fast the boat is going.

~----------~

            Heatwave stays off the monitor for much of the drive home. He’s all too aware of the Chief’s gaze on him and even more so of the way Kade stares out his windows and tries to avoid looking at the rest of him. But every so often, Chief Burns’ eyes will flick away from him, and he begins to grow curious.

            As awkward and painful as he thinks looking at his partner might be, he can’t fight the urge to look forever. He decides to just take a peek. He doesn’t regret it: Kade’s face and the tips of his ears are interestingly pink.

            Huh.


	17. Don't Worry, Be Happy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love that Dani can't cook and has no idea that she can't...
> 
> Edge of Eternity is a title I made up on the spot and is not intended to refer to any actual novel.

            The boating lesson running so late means they have to wait on dinner until Kade and their father gets home. Dani doesn’t understand why they can’t just let her cook. Then they would have dinner waiting on the table when they got home! But for some reason, no one will let her near the stove today. Weird.

            In any case, she hopes they get home soon. She’s starting to get hungry.

            When they finally do get home, though, she has to raise her eyebrows in silent surprise. Kade is blushing very vibrantly, and his eyes are a little unfocused. “Are you okay? You’re not getting sick, are you?”

            The redhead doesn’t seem to realize she’s speaking to him at first. He only snaps back to reality at the end of her sentence. “What? No, I’m…I’m fine.” He almost sounds angry at first, but it fades quickly.

            That reaction intrigues her. Within minutes, she works out a possible cause. Of course, she wouldn’t dare make a direct poke, at least not here. “You look like you’re burning up. Embarrassing boat ride? Secret admirer?”

            His already flushed face turns tomato red, and he glares hard. Still, he stutters when he says, “N-no. Just drop it, okay?”

            _‘Gotcha,’_ she thinks to herself. She’s right on the money. She doesn’t need any more teasing him…Well, except for one last, sly look before taking her seat at the table.

~----------~

            Chase stretches and puts aside his work for the day. His processor requires rest to continue working optimally. Running over numbers and titles and codes is easier for him than it is for Heatwave or Blades, and Boulder’s talent lies in a different sort of numbers, but even he tires of them at a certain point.

           Rejoining the others in the common area, he is unsurprised to find Heatwave returned from his boating lesson. The shift in their leader’s EM field is less expected, but it does not faze him. He is quite pleased to feel the tentative happiness and contemplation radiating off of the mech whom he had foreseen returning in a far more sour mood.

            “Heatwave, it is good to see you well. I take it the experience was a rewarding one,” the police mech says by way of greeting.

            “You could say so,” he replies in a tone that Chase cannot quite place.

            He tilts his helm to the side, calculating the possible meanings behind that simple phrase. “So, Kade returns your affections?”

            “He says he doesn’t.”

            “Ah, so your plan was sound, then? Telling him has helped alleviate the pain?” Remarkable. This is not the outcome he has anticipated, considering both the depth of the triple-changer’s emotion for his partner and Kade’s disposition.

            “No, I think he’s lying.” Despite the contentment rolling through his field, there is still his normal completely serious expression on his face. “Possibly even to himself.”

            “I…do not follow.” He can feel a processor ache threatening to form. “What motivation could he have for deceiving you? Would it not be easier to tell the truth? Even if he has good reason to avoid forming a romantic relationship with you, could he not simply state those reasons instead of pretending not to return your attraction?”

            “Because he doesn’t want to return it, the same way I didn’t want to be attracted to him in the first place,” explains Heatwave. “Maybe not for the same reasons, but it’s the same idea.”

            That makes sense to a certain degree, though there are still a few issues that baffle him. “What evidence do you have that he might feel that way?”

            “He blushed the whole way back,” is the only answer Chase receives.

~----------~

            When Dani goes to hang out with the ‘Bots the next morning, at least an hour after she and Blades dropped off Cody at school, Chase is the only one visible in the bunker. “Where is everyone?”

            The police mech jolts, shocked out of whatever he’d been doing moments before. He glances at her and returns quickly to scanning the bookcase. “I believe Boulder and Graham have gone to visit Leafy. Blades and Heatwave are in another room, planning.”

            “Planning what?”

            Once again, his fingers still on the spine of a book. He seems to struggle over whether or not to tell her. “It is a private matter. It may be considered a breach of trust were I to disclose the matter at hand to you.”

            He has a good reason to be evasive, but Dani is sharp as a tack. She has a feeling she knows why Kade was blushing so hard the night before. Now, she has a new way to test her hypothesis. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that Heatwave is in love with Kade?”

            Chase pulls a book off the shelf before she asks her question and immediately drops it upon hearing the words come out of her mouth. He freezes completely, not even looking down at the book. “How did you know?”

            “Lucky guess. That, and Dad walked in on Heatwave admitting how he felt about my brother to you a while ago.” She retrieves the fallen item for him, only to notice the title. “ _Edge of Eternity_ …This one is about a man’s descent into crime. Are you reading it with the hopes of getting an accurate view of the legal system? Because you’ll be very disappointed.”

            He comes back to himself at that. “Ah, no. I have read this one once already, and Chief Burns already warned me of the factual errors the first time. However, I found the read quite…enjoyable. The idea of presenting a criminal in a light usually reserved for heroes did give me some pause, but compassion is part of what makes us good at our jobs, is it not?”

            He stops for a moment and stoops to take the book from her. Then, once again, he appears to battle with himself over if he should say more. When he eventually does speak again, it’s in a low, conspiratory tone. “Also, I find the ‘chase scenes’ in this tale far more truthful in their excitement to real high speed pursuits.”

            Mild wonder has her eyebrows arching up behind her bangs. That tiny confession reveals a side to him Dani hadn’t thought to see behind the stoicism. Before she can explore the new landscape opened to her, he clears his throat and repairs the metaphorical cracked façade. Knocked out of the moment, she’s forced to remember her previous line of questioning. “Erm, so what does their planning have to do with Heatwave loving Kade anyway? Is he trying to woo him, or…?”

            “Actually, Heatwave believes Kade has already been wooed without his efforts,” Chase answers as he flips pages over to the first chapter. “The present conversation has to do with the process getting him to admit it.”

            She mentally pats herself on the back for guessing the meaning behind her eldest brother’s actions perfectly. “Good luck with that. I’m not even sure Kade himself knows, and even if he does, he’s wanted to be with Hayley for so long, I’m not sure he’s willing to leave her.”

            Chase looks up from his reading. Dani can’t quite decide if his expression is concerned or calculating.

~----------~

            Without a doubt, he is concerned for his leader’s well-being. Yet, had he not already known that the probability of Kade remaining solely with his present love-interest is quite high? Had he not already warned the triple-changer that such is a possibility? Even so, the human’s words seem to renew that worry in him. He fears that Heatwave may be wandering into his own emotional destruction.

            Before he can voice the thought or continue the conversation in any way, the emergency alarm blares. Chase sets down his book and transforms into vehicle mode. He has his door open before the Chief even finishes sliding down the pole to head out.


	18. Close Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know some of you might read this chapter and wonder how this fic is going to be close to thirty chapters, and all I can say is that I'm almost sorry, but I'm not.

            Heatwave and Blades come to the conclusion that the best ploy is actually no ploy at all. If Kade _has_ fallen for him, then he must love his partner exactly how he is. All he really needs to do is act normal without pretending nothing happened.

            The emergency alarm going off is actually perfect, in some ways. It means the fireman has to spend time around him.

            Kade holds his steering wheel a little more lightly than usual, almost as though he’s afraid to be in too much contact with the triple-changer. “I don’t have teeth there, you know,” the truck says as he takes off for downtown.

            “I know,” Kade snaps back. “Just trying not to give you too many ideas. I’m kind of irresistible, you know.”

            “The victims of your arguable charm include one human and one alien. Yeah, you’re truly the pinnacle of attractiveness on this planet.”

            “It was enough for you,” he mutters.

            Heatwave has to feel slightly smug at the sight of that pink tinge returning to the tips of the fireman’s ears. “Primus knows why.”

            When they turn the next corner, the source of the emergency becomes clear. Apparently, Mr. Harrison finally turned in his heli-pack in favor of something more convertible. To be more exact, it’s a contraption that has him suspended in the center and changes between a clear orb-like thing and a multi-legged walking mode as the terrain requires.

            Of course, it has to be more dangerous than the heli-pack. The travel apparatus—could it even be considered a vehicle?—is in orb-mode and rolling down the road. Its path doesn’t seem to want to account for the cars, content to just roll right over them.

            “Tch. This is why you don’t drive a glorified hamster ball.” Kade seems really proud of himself for that comment. Heatwave just rolls his optics.

            The obvious response to the chaos is to just jump in front of the ball and stop it. Bright idea, except when the firefighters go for it, the machine changes to walking mode and leaps up on top of a nearby building and starts running away. Mr. Harrison’s screaming can be heard fading into the distance.

            Heatwave growls and gives chase. He can hear Chase not far behind him and Blades join them above. Their quarry moves with shocking speed. It would be easier to catch it in vehicle mode, but the two grounders are confined to too small a space to transform at the moment. “Blades, go on ahead. We’ll catch up,” the Rescue Bots’ leader orders.

            “Right.”

            The helicopter pulls up higher and zooms after the rampaging travel machine. The moment the other two have room to transform, they do and speed off in pursuit. Eventually, everyone catches up.

            From there, stopping the thing is still a multi-step process. Heatwave uses his hose to catch the machine by one leg. Even then, it manages to mostly get itself back into ball mode with just that one leg sticking out. The red mech has to set a firm stance to keep himself from being pulled around as the ball starts rolling again. Chase approaches from another side and braces his hands against it. Blades lands on a third side. Together, they start peeling the legs away and tearing them off until Mr. Harrison is uncovered.

            Blades lets Dani out of his cockpit so she can check the man for injuries. “I hate to say it,” she says as she starts looking him over, “but maybe you should stick to the heli-pack.”

~----------~

            “Heh, I bet Graham and Boulder will be sorry they missed the action,” Kade says on the drive back to the base. He looks at the screen on the dashboard, only to turn away again soon after. Silently, he berates himself. He knows that somehow, things have switched, and he’s the one acting weird while Heatwave is back to normal.

            How is he supposed to just cope with the idea that his partner is into him? He knows he’s the hottest thing on the island, as he has told the mech both seriously and in a more joking way multiple times, but there’s this big difference between knowing you’re attractive and knowing someone you’re close to—someone you work and live with—is attracted to you. This changes everything, doesn’t it? Yet Heatwave is acting like it barely even matters.

            Should…Should he be thinking the same way? But how can he? Every time he thinks for even a moment about that evening, of the orange and pink light from the sky glistening over the water and his friend’s frame, he gets embarrassed.

            And he still can’t understand why it took him so long to respond to the confession. Thinking he misheard the first time and needing to get his words together through the shock may explain part of it, but he still remembers pausing for a very long time. Had he really stopped to consider what his feelings for the mech even were?

            That doesn’t mean anything, he’s sure. All he was doing was trying to sort out his own thoughts so that he could turn the mech down without ruining their partnership, right?

            _“Kade.”_

            He snaps out of his thoughts and refocuses on the face on the display screen. “Hm, what?”

            “Thanks for rejoining the land of consciousness,” Heatwave says dryly. “I hadn’t realized you’d mastered the art of falling asleep with your eyes open. Are you feeling all right?”

            “I’m _fine._ I’m just…thinking.”

            “Don’t hurt yourself.”

            That remark is definitely worth a glare. “You know, I have _no idea_ why I didn’t pick up on that whole being in love with me thing sooner. You’re always _so amazing_ with the sweet talk. You’re just constantly buttering me up.”

            “Hey, you walk right into these comments.” Is that a smirk? Yep, the triple-changer is smirking at him. That jerk.

            “I’ll remember that the next time I get the wild idea to give you a wash. See if I take the care to scrub your tires down.”

            “Oh no, because I never survived washing myself before coming to Earth. Truly, you’ve discovered a new form of torture.”

            Kade finds himself snorting despite himself.

~----------~

            It’s a victory, but only a small one, so Heatwave doesn’t feel happy cheering just yet. Maybe he has to get to his partner through tiny cracks in the wall between them, but he isn’t going to enjoy it.

            Okay, maybe he enjoys it a little. The banter has been fun for a long time now, and that doesn’t stop now that there’s an extra purpose to it. Kade isn’t the smartest member of the Burns family, but he can be witty, and he likes the challenge that sometimes provides.

            Even so, patience has never been Heatwave’s strong suit. He’s more about jumping into action and getting results as quickly as possible. The delight of trying to get things to work falls easily to the wave of aggravation at having to take his time.

            Beating up the training post is always a fun pastime, but he feels a little more like driving out his frustrations. Chase joins him, and he finds that he actually does appreciate the police car’s company this time. Having someone to race against may actually help him feel better. Blades follows them from the garage out to the ring, but he doesn’t seem enthusiastic about watching them from the sidelines.

~----------~

            In his room, Kade paces. Anxiety bubbles discomfort in his stomach and makes him feel dizzy, but there isn’t a whole lot he feels like doing. There’s little he feels like he _can_ do.

            He can’t think. He doesn’t really want to, but it’s like the thoughts are being blocked by something. Maybe the simple fact that he doesn’t want the thoughts to enter his conscious mind that keeps them out. At least that would be a helpful bodily reaction.

            This is one time he envies Graham for his physics homework. Okay, whoa, maybe that’s going too far, but he does envy the fact that his younger brother has something else to channel his energy on. In fact, both of his younger brothers do. He wouldn’t be surprised to find out Dani does, too, even if she’s the only one of his siblings not in some kind of school at present.

            His eyes dart every which way, seeking distraction. Eventually, they land on a picture frame. Kade traces the lines of the rectangle with his eyes before dipping in to look at the actual picture in the frame. It’s the first picture he ever took with Hayley.

            Instantly, the nausea intensifies, and he almost has to run to the nearest bathroom before he can contain the reaction. Guilt rips at his gut. He doesn’t understand it. He hasn’t done wrong by her; Heatwave liking him doesn’t suddenly make him a cheater. But a negative feeling weighs on him when he looks at her beautiful, tender face.

            Kade takes the frame in his hand and sits on his bed. All he does for several minutes is look at the photograph and try to understand why it brings him pain.


	19. Lightning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chase and Dani make mental notes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, the opening of the chapter isn't wrong. It will make sense after the first few paragraphs.

            _Smoke plumed from his lips in a long, sluggish stream. Chris stared upwards, eyes unfocused and unseeing as the cloud dissipated into the cold of night._

_It had felt better than he had expected it to. He had expected making that little girl smile to be the highlight of the heist, but he barely found himself caring that her mother would have her medicine now. All he could think about was how exciting it was to pull one over on those damn rotten pharmacists._

_Except that it wasn’t just about cheating the corrupt. The whole thing had been a joyride: breaking in, stealing, dodging cops, the wail of the alarms. God, he’d loved it._

_A stone settled in his heart, and he embraced it. That stone would be his strength._

_He stomped the stub of his first cigarette and set a new one on his lip. As he held the lighter to the tip, he gazed out on the sea of city lights stretching almost endlessly. Somewhere inside of him, a hunger awoke. This city would be his kingdom, his hunting land and playground._

            Every time he reads this part, Chase finds the corner of his mouth tugging downwards. He has to wonder how many miscreants made their start the same way this Christopher Abbey did, attempting to be a hero and creating a villain of themselves instead. Could Evan and Myles have started out the same way? Dr. Morocco? He could easily see Madeline Pynch having been initially motivated by the desire to build a better life for her daughter and barreling straight on to pure profit pursuit. If such were the case for any of them, could it happen to him as well?

            The very idea makes him shudder. No, that prophecy is unlikely to come true. Portraying a villain to uncover a treacherous plot had been more than enough to show him he could never enjoy it the way this reprehensible protagonist learns to. It would take a force far greater than they have yet encountered to override his sense of morality. He is too tightly bound to the law.

            Despite its rampant factual inexactitudes and incompetent portrayal of legal officials, Chase must give the novel great credit. Even upon a second reading, it is proving to be quite thought-provoking. Granted, much of Earth culture provokes thought in him.

            Racing against Heatwave before returning to his reading helped make his processor nice and clear—and thus, more able to contemplate the text before him. He feels emotionally balanced to his core.

            He barely reacts when the lift doors open, though the sound returns awareness of his surroundings to him. Blades has apparently moved on to a new show in the time that he has been concentrated on the novel. Dani enters the room and gives the police mech an enigmatic look, almost like scanning him, though he knows that cannot be so.

            “Care to join us, Chase?” she invites, gesturing towards the television with her head.

            He means to think it over first, but his hand closing the book with barely a conscious command makes the decision for him. “Certainly,” he says while stepping their way. “What program shall we be partaking in this afternoon?”

            “It’s some kind of comedy from somewhere called England,” explains Blades. “The main character is this jerkish hotel owner.”

            “I’m not sure he’ll like that one, Blades. The humor is a little dark; I think the jokes will come off more mean than funny.” Dani takes a seat beside her partner’s leg. “What about…?”

            Chase watches quietly while the two of them argue back and forth over what to watch. Eventually, they settle on an action-comedy. He can only trust their judgment and hope for the best.

            Several minutes into the movie, he is about to comment on some finer point of the laws most relevant to the protagonists’ misadventures when he catches the human giving him that same peculiar look from before. “Pardon my asking, but is there some undetected substance marking my face that I should be aware of?”

            “No,” she casually says. She returns to watching the film shortly.

            Chase is left puzzling over the interaction.

~----------~

            Dani wishes she could get a read on her dad’s partner. There has always been a clear ranking of “most visibly reactive” to “least visibly reactive” with Blades emoting the most, then Boulder, then Heatwave, and then Chase least of all. That doesn’t mean Chase is completely stoic, but his expressions are often subtle when they _aren’t_ flat.

            But between the Octane story and the chase-scene confession, the blue ‘Bot is beginning to look very interesting. She swears there’s something—maybe several things—under the surface, and she’s going to figure out what all is there.

            She comes down to spend time with Blades, not investigate. At the same time, she isn’t exactly going to reject the chance if she has one. The movie she suggests is one she thinks her partner will get a laugh out of, but she aims to keep an eye on the other ‘Bot in the hopes that he might let some other secret out.

            He catches her peeking. A little embarrassed, Dani turns away from him as quickly as she can and pretends to be watching the film she knows more-or-less by heart. Chase doesn’t pursue further questioning, so she assumes that he believes her ruse.

            The movie only kind of interests her. It’s no longer the favorite it used to be, mainly because she has watched this one so much that it’s kind of worn down on the novelty of it, and the plot holes show more now that she’s old enough to spot them. Still, she used to love this movie for a reason: it’s not half bad.

            Dani doesn’t expect to make any observations now that she has been caught, but she’s wrong. She fails to bite back a laugh when she notices it, but, to her luck, a conveniently-timed joke helps her cover it up.

            How could she help herself when Chase’s feet twitch every time a police car turns on screen? It’s adorable. It kind of reminds her of the way a lot of people move their game controllers around, even if the devices aren’t motion-sensitive, while playing racing and combat-based video games. Kind of like he’s trying to make the cars on screen drive faster or better.

            She knows she’s still grinning way too widely at the revelation by the film’s end, but she can’t stop. And why would she want to stop? Being happy is a good thing. If the ‘Bots notice, they can just assume that she enjoyed the movie that much.

            The movie rolls to a close, and she swears she hears a contented sigh from Chase. “I counted several traffic violations, two counts of breaking and entering, and reckless disregard for both human and animal life.”

            “Yeah, but who saw the best friend working for the enemy the whole time coming?” asks Blades. “Plot. Twist. I couldn’t believe it.”

            “Up for another one? There’s a sequel, if you two are interested,” she offers.

            “I would love to,” her partner says, seemingly sincere, “but I think I should check up on Heatwave. I’m not so sure he’s spending his time and energy wisely, and then I promised Boulder I would do this…thing.”

            “I would be happy to continue watching as long as I have no duties to be fulfilled,” Chase says. “At present, I can think of none.”

            “Great!” This gives her more of a chance of achieving her objective. Or she can just have fun watching movies until the next emergency hits. Either way is nice.

~----------~

            He may be having a much easier time focusing on the actual movie than Dani is, but Chase manages to make a few observations of his own. The second film’s greater emphasis on planes may have been a great assistance. Before long, he is able to detect a pattern wherein the pilot stretches out more during the more active flight scenes, but curls inward and tucks her knees near her chin when the romantic subplot or hand-to-hand combat scenes are presented.

            That is not all he notices. There is a certain shine to her eyes that he has come to learn means strong happiness in humans, much the same way optics tend to brighten when a Cybertronian is delighted. The effect in Dani is slightly dazzling.

            It is her turn to catch him staring. “Do I have something on my face?” she asks, but her tone indicates that she is teasing.

            His reply comes in a steady, informative tone. “No, I was merely happy to see you cheerful.”

            That response earns a gentle laugh from her, and he finds his pulse thrumming. His own reaction stuns him. He had thought for sure that his feelings for the pilot were diminishing. He had not been feeling the strange pull towards her.

            Yet now…Now, his spark is not acting the way it was at any point. He still feels drawn to her, but it is not in the desperate, hungry ache he had felt before. Now, he feels only a pleasant buzz from being around her and amusing her.

            Further data required.


	20. Third Wheel Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blades struggles with being the third wheel.

            Spending time with Dani and Chase is fine, but Blades is starting to feel distinctly not-fine when he tries spending time with the two of them at once. It’s not that the movie isn’t great; despite all the terrifying crashes, it’s actually really funny and exciting. The problem is the weird atmosphere that comes with having the pair of them and no one else in the room.

            When their unofficial SIC stopped acting weirder than usual around the helicopter’s partner, said helicopter-former thought that things would be comfortable again. And they almost were! But something shifted in his human buddy, and he can sense it. He isn’t exactly sure when it happened, but if he had to guess, he’d say it was around the time they explained EM fields to her.

            Now, it’s not like Dani is suddenly talking about Chase all the time or that Chase is suddenly snapping back to that mopey, wistful mood he dipped into back when this whole mess started. All things considered, they’re both _way_ easier to deal with than Kade’s and Heatwave’s mess of a…whatever they are. (Seriously, he’s trying to help the red mech, but those firefighters have a really odd way of showing their love.) In fact, he’d argue that most of the time, they’re pretty okay, as long as enough of the team is with them.

            But stick them together in a much smaller group, and the atmosphere abruptly changes. Dani can say she wants to spend time with Blades, and he believes that she probably honestly does, yet get Chase involved in the mix, and Blades starts to feel like _he’s_ the part of the company that’s been tacked on to the end at the last second.

           He thinks it’s great that the police-mech’s field is back to calm with that tiny trace of happy rolling through it. He has learned that jealousy is wrong and that he should be happy that his friend has other people to rely on. That’s not the problem.

            The problem is that it feels like he’s intruding on their personal time. The way Dani keeps looking at Chase, the way his comments are nearly always directed at her…This time is truly about the two of them, even if it’s nominally about Blades, too.

            So, given the choice of staying to watch another slightly horrifying movie with the horrible background awkwardness caused by two of his friends eyeing each other the entire time or leaving and finding other friends of his to hang out with, he chooses the latter option. He makes a kind of lame excuse about Boulder and heads out. The two seem perfectly content to see him leave.

            “Have you tried flowers?” Boulder asks Heatwave about the time Blades is walking up to them.

            “I don’t think uprooted plants are really going to help me win him over. If anything, they’ll probably remind him of _Hayley_ ,” replies Heatwave.

            Blades holds his hands out to the side, palms up, as he approaches. “I still hold that polishing up and posing in a passably casual but subtly seductive way is always a tactic to try, but _nooo_ , because human ideas of attractiveness are _totally different_ from ours.”

            “Humans don’t have sparks, remember? So yeah, they _are_ different.”

            “Did I say, ‘show a little protoform’? ‘Expose your inner wires’? ‘Become an exhibitionist’? No. I’m just saying that showing off a little shiny plating can go a long way.” The flight-capable mech demonstrates by leaning against the nearest side of the Firehouse, pressing one stabilizer to the wall, and thrusting his other leg out.

            Heatwave rolls his optics. Boulder follows the line of his leg but ultimately looks back up to his face with a quizzical expression. Blades drops out of the pose with a sigh. “Maybe _Chase_ would appreciate my advice.”

            “He _still_ hasn’t moved on?” their leader asks in that growly baritone of his.

            “I think he _had_ , but Dani is suddenly really interested in him. I just wish I could ask _Taylor_ what _he_ would think of all this.”

            “Or you could ask Dani,” Boulder points out. “She _is_ your friend.”

            “…Point.”

           An opportunity presents itself when Chief Burns and Chase head out on patrol. Dani is still in the shared area, reading a magazine. Blades approaches slowly and quietly, tapping his pointer-fingers together the entire way.

            “Um, Dani?”

            She peers over the top of her magazine at him. “Yeah, Blades?”

            “I have just a little question…What’s your deal with Chase? Not that you’re not allowed to hang out with whoever you like or anything, but, um. Why?”

            “He’s interesting. I’m curious,” she answers with a shrug. “I really just want to figure him out, because he keeps dropping these surprising clues.”

            “He’s weird in a good way. _I’ve_ told you that much before. I’m not sure how much of him is _supposed_ to be figured out.” He crouches down to look at her on more even level. “I just want to make sure you’re not leading him on or getting interested in a more… _close_ way or—”

            “Wait, you’re making sure _what?_ ” At this point, Dani sets her magazine aside completely. “Blades, I’m not leading him on. Chase knows I’m not into him like that. I told him not to avoid me over his feelings not being returned, so that’s why we’re spending time together. It’s not like I single him out for private time. And besides, even if I were interested in ‘getting close,’ that’s _my_ business, and you can’t tell me what to do.”

            Blades holds his hands up placatingly. “I know; I know! I’m just trying to look out for two of my friends. Just promise you won’t hurt him or yourself?”

            She sighs heavily through her nose, but she nods. “I promise.”

            After that conversation, the pilot sits a little further away from him when they spend time together. Blades whines pitifully when he first notices. This is not the outcome he intended. Pushing his best friend away only makes the awkwardness of the whole situation worse, because now he’s isolated on top of feeling their bizarre aura-interaction.

            Things need to be normal again.

~----------~

            The helicopter-former is outside, sitting on a log, pouting when Cody finds him. He hears the kid walk up, but doesn’t turn to acknowledge his presence at first.

            “I was going to invite you to play video games, but you look sad. What’s wrong?”

            Blades heaves a sigh, attention still firmly on the ground in front of him instead of the boy at his side. “I was just trying to look out for Dani and Chase and maybe Taylor, but when I tried to talk to Dani about my concerns, she got mad at me.”

            “Why would you need to look out for Taylor?”

            Count on the kid to be sharp enough to pick up on _that_ detail. The orange mech sits up straight and looks at him with a troubled expression. “Because I think Chase is developing deeper feelings for her, and I’m starting to think she might start feeling the same way.”

            “What do you mean by ‘deeper’?”

            He hesitates on telling the boy. Like Dani said, it isn’t his business to share. On the other hand, Cody _is_ just trying to help. Settling on telling him just a little bit of the story, the most important part to him and his loneliness, Blades lowers his voice before saying, “I think they might start to love each other.”

             “Well, that’s what I’m saying,” he replies. “There are a lot of kinds of love, and loving someone stronger than before doesn’t have to mean being _in_ love with them. Take me and Frankie, for example. We’ve been best friends for a long time, and I love her almost like family, but that doesn’t mean I want to hold hands and call her my girlfriend, you know?”

            “So…You’re saying that they might really just be becoming closer friends and that I’m overreacting.” Yeah, that doesn't cheer him up at all.

            Cody places a comforting hand on his arm. “Maybe not overreacting. You’re just trying to be a good friend. But until we can actually say one way or another how she feels about him, there’s really no use jumping into action. Even then, I’m not sure we can do anything but make sure she isn’t hurting Taylor. Other than that, what’s the worst that could happen if they _do_ fall in love? At least they’ll both be happy, right?”

            “I guess you’re right.” He still doesn’t feel well. He has a creeping suspicion that the future holds unpleasant things. But maybe, just maybe, if they do end up going down that path, they might at least _say_ that their time together is about being together, instead of pretending to want other people around.

            Blades excuses himself to go apologize to Dani. Flying is never fun to begin with, but it’s even worse when she’s upset with him.


	21. Manta Rays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani has another date go wrong. This time, she's not the one doing the rescuing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter didn't include everything I wanted it to, but it's the longest chapter I've written so far.

            Windsurfing is not as fun as wingsuit-flying, but hardly anything could match the latter, and the former is still pretty fun. Dani still has the glory of the wind and the speed behind her, and the water guiding the board under her feet rolls in a soothing way. Leave it to Taylor to pick an awesome date.

            As he curves by her again, she gets splashed. Laughing, she tries to find a way to get him back for that one. The two race and practically dance around each other, enjoying the rush of the ocean around them.

            The taste of salt in both the air and the water that accidentally gets in their mouths is a familiar one. It almost has to be, living on an island. There’s something about the tang of it that really sets the mood. Of course, the warmth of the sun caressing their skin doesn’t hurt matters.

            All is well until the clouds start rolling in and the wind suddenly swells. Dani’s grip tightens on her boom as the wind hits her hard. Her eyes are forced shut. She can feel herself being pushed away by the squall, but she has no idea how far or how fast.

            The water rocks her sailboard roughly. When the wind stops tearing at her face, she can finally look, not that it does her much good. All she sees is that she won’t be above water for long. The only question she has is if it would be more or less dangerous to keep hold of the board as it’s thrown over.

            Before she can make up her mind, the sailboard is toppled, dunking her into the harsh, heaving waves. The water drags her under, pulling on her legs and waist and, as she gets even deeper, her arms, despite the struggle she puts up to swim to the surface. Dani tries to hold her breath, but her lungs start to ache before long.

~----------~

            When Chase hears about the emergency at the beach, he is immediately on edge. Hearing that it is the very beach where Dani is supposed to be on her date, however, makes his spark constrict painfully. He knows, without being told, that he will not be allowed on this rescue, but the knowledge cannot prevent him from volunteering. He needs to see her come out of this safely.

            “Sir, allow me to assist—”

            “No. This is a small rescue, and a water-based one. We need to get Heatwave, Kade, and Blades out there. The rest of you stay back until further notice.”

            “I can take Blades,” Cody says. “Just until we can get Dani in the pilot seat. I can use the same ‘automatic settings’ excuse as before until then.”

            Chief Burns gives him a stern look, obviously about to deliver a similar denial to his son. “Cody, Dani herself may be in danger. We need an adult behind the controls in case she’s unconscious or…worse.” The final word, on its own, would be enough to increase the police Autobot’s sore feeling, but the sadness that enters his partner’s expression augments the effect.

            “I have information gathering on the comm.-tab. It would be faster if I could be right there with Blades, picking up readings and giving them directly to him.”

            His father relents in demeanor first, and then in words. “Fine, but get going immediately!”

            Chase can only watch the others with worry pulsing through his field. Boulder comes to his side and transmits calm back.

~----------~

            A sense of helplessness overwhelms her. After all the danger she has willingly jumped into over the years, this is what kills her? A bit of unexpected bad weather? It would be more satisfying if she at least knew Dr. Morocco was behind it all, but she won’t even get that.

            Her train of thought is brought to a halt by the feeling of a hand grabbing hers. Even blinded by the water she can’t open her eyes against, she can still feel a rush of calm envelope her. There’s amazing strength behind the arm pulling her out of the water, but she doesn’t have the presence of mind to wonder over it.

            She takes a breath the moment her head is above the surface. It stings. A burning sensation hits her lungs, making her cringe.

            “Dani. Dani!” There’s a delay before the voice registers as Kade’s. “Can you move on your own at all?”

            The pilot coughs hard several times before she can answer. “I’m fine, mostly. Taylor! Is he—?”

            “He’s fine. Just climb onto Heatwave!”

            She feels her hands make contact with metal. Grasping for any holds in the mech’s frame she can find, she pulls herself up. When she reaches the top, a towel drops around her shoulders, and Kade guides her into the passenger’s seat of Heatwave’s boat mode.

            Her ability to lift her eyelids—and with it, her sight—only slowly returns to her. It’s then that she notices the towels covering the triple-changer’s seats. As though reading her mind, Heatwave says, “Did you think I would let him get salt all over my interior?”

            “Is Blades here?” she asks, ignoring him.

            “Cody has him. You almost drowned, sis. Maybe you should—”

            “If you’re about to suggest I sit a rescue out, you can shove it up your—”

            “No one is sitting anything out,” growls Heatwave before they can continue their argument. “Kade, if anything goes wrong with your sister, Blades can take care of her.”

            The fireman seems about ready to protest, but his anger abates quickly. “Fine.”

            They speed Dani to the shore. Having been comm.ed on the way, Blades is already there waiting for her. He pops open his cockpit, and she leaps in as quickly as she can, smoothly reaching to grab her helmet the moment she lands in the pilot seat. As they lift back into the air, she frowns and scans the ground.

            “We need to be mindful of that wind. If it gets too strong again, we’ll have to land and leave everything to Kade and Heatwave.” That thought doesn’t appeal to her, but she knows Blades would probably be fine with it. “Cody, any idea where that storm came from?”

            “We took out Dr. Morocco’s weather machine, so it can’t be him. I’m checking surveillance and Doc Greene’s sensors for other possibilities.”

            There goes a perfectly good excuse. “Where’s Taylor? Kade said he’s already been rescued, but I don’t see him.”

            “He said he would help check people for injuries,” Cody explains.

            Blades laughs a little forcefully and says, “There was this one human who wasn’t breathing, and I thought Taylor was kissing them until Cody explained resuscitation to me.”

            The kid gives the helicopter an awkward look that expresses perfectly how Dani feels. She knows it’s a life-saving maneuver and that Taylor would be fine if she used it in an emergency, but there’s something about being told about it that’s just plain uncomfortable.

            They spot a kayak being pulled out to sea and dive down. Their actions have to be both quick and careful. Blades could accidentally hurt the human passengers with his hook, but they need to pull them to safety. It takes flying out ahead of the civilians, dropping the hook slowly, and getting _them_ to attach the hook to their own boat.

            The helicopter has to really push and fight to tug the kayak back to shore. The waves are still dragging firmly on everything in its reach. Several times, the boat almost tips over, and it’s almost only by sheer luck that they get their charges to the safety of the beach.

            When everyone is safe, Blades lands and lets Dani back out. She rushes out to search for Taylor. Once she finds him, she practically tackles him in her eagerness to hug him. “Thank goodness you’re okay.”

            “I could say the same about you,” he says, wrapping his arms around her waist. “What do you say I make it up to you with a date that's a little safer? Dinner tonight?”

            She rests her chin on his shoulder and hums. “Tonight isn’t so good. I promised a friend I would wash his windows to make up for making him feel left out last time we tried to hang out. Tomorrow?”

            One of his hands comes up to nestle in her hair. For a moment, he’s silent, and she doesn’t mind. This shared closeness is just what she needs after a close call like this day’s. After some time of just holding each other, he mumbles in her ear, “Yeah, tomorrow works.”

~----------~

            Chase is barely resisting the urge to pace. He has never felt so restless or been so incapable of remaining still, at least until developing whatever form of attraction it is—the romantic false lead or an early scene of the movie, as Blades and Boulder once suggested, or something beyond that point—that he holds for the Burns daughter. Waiting to acquire her status is excruciating. The sensation is almost as though his spark might give out at any moment.

            It is to his great relief, then, when Blades, Cody, and Dani enter the room mere nanokliks after Heatwave and Kade make their own entrance. Everyone immediately crowds around the female. Chief Burns is the first to pull her into a hug, followed by Graham.

            “Are you all right?” her father asks after several minutes of what the police-mech has come to understand as safety-affirming affection.

            “I’m fine, guys,” replies Dani. “ _Juuust_ not looking forward to swimming any time soon, if I can help it.”

            Chase kneels down to address her more directly. Although he is certain he wishes to speak to her, he fumbles with the precise wording for a short while. “I am…relieved to find you returned unharmed.”

            “I nearly thought he would speed out of here against my orders from how worried he was getting,” the Chief jokes.

            “Really now? Chase disobeying orders?” Dani asks rhetorically. There is fascination in her eyes when she meets his gaze. The intensity of it holds him there, staring back for a time presently indeterminate, as he is disinclined to check his internal chronometer.

            One of the rescuers around them clears his throat, and the moment is lost. The pilot turns her attention suddenly to her partner. “Ahem, I think I promised someone a wash, and I think you’re going to need it after all that salty air.”

            “Ugh, don’t I know it! I can feel it clinging to my plating! It’s starting to itch.” The flying duo’s voices fade into the distance as they take the lift up to the roof. Once they’re gone, the rest of the team disperses as well. All but the Chief and Chase, that is.

            Chief Burns crosses his arms and faces his partner. He raises an eyebrow critically, although there is a trace of humor underneath the judgment. “Something tells me Kade isn’t the one I should have been giving the Talk to.”

            Chase gives him a look of confusion. “We have many talks, although I get the impression that you are referring to a specific one.”

            “A specific one that family gives to family, dealing at least in part with romantic and more… _physical_ relationships.”

            “Ah.” The blue Rescue Bot can feel his cheeks warming already. “I believe I can understand why you may assume such a discussion necessary, but I must assure you that it is not. I have already concluded that a ‘physical relationship’ is unfeasible should my attraction to your daughter continue, and I have interest in neither dissuading her from her relationship with Taylor nor pursuing a relationship while she and he are romantically involved.”

            The Chief does not appear wholly convinced, but he sighs and lowers his arms to his sides. “If you say so. The only question is, is she interested in pursuing you?”

            He should not dare to hope, but his spark leaps regardless.


	22. St. Jimmy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan and Myles bide their time in jail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor warning for very vague references to past ableism at the beginning here.
> 
> Also, I cannot begin to tell you how many times the ending of this chapter was changed.

            The outside world can call it Twin’s Telepathy, the Brotherly Bond, whatever they like, but Myles has never had trouble understanding exactly what Evan is saying. It’s everyone else that has a problem. They were always discriminating against his bro in school for what they labeled “Broca’s aphasia.”

            His bro is brilliant and even more observant than he is, which is impressive, considering how smart Myles is to begin with. That no one else could see that—that they always mocked his lack of words they could identify—is only a mark of how stupid the rest of the world is. If it had been just their classmates, the twins could easily dismiss it as the pair of them being leagues ahead of their peers because they _are_.

           But it took their teachers too long to see Evan’s intelligence, too. When he didn’t write in complete sentences, they tried to put him in slower classes. When he couldn’t give their speeches to their satisfaction, they thought it meant he couldn’t possibly ace his tests on his own. They thought Myles was helping him cheat. When they isolated him from the rest of the class and he still aced their tests, they became bitter.

            They _refused_ to acknowledge his brother’s brainpower. They _refused_ to see him for the genius he was. And guess what? Myles _refused_ to leave his side.

            The twins endured insults and hits and mocking from the people, their age and older, who were supposed to facilitate their growth and improvement. No, they more than endured. They thrived in spite of those who would see them die. They fought back, and the world couldn’t handle them being so strong.

            After years of fighting, literally and figuratively, the system grew enraged at their continued existence. So their school expelled them, and their dearest, darling mother kicked them out. What were two poor, homeless, abused, young boys to do but turn to crime? Truly, society is to blame.

            Yes, society’s at fault for being so stupid and ignorant and easy to con. And fun to take a swing at, really.

            Sure, there’s an element of taking revenge on a system that has wronged them to it, but really, even as children, they never actually hid their delight at being outcasts. It only accentuated their superiority. When it comes right down to the facts, maybe their teachers and classmates and family all saw the budding sociopaths in them.

            Their sob story doesn’t mean their crime-sprees aren’t mostly about causing trouble for the joy of it. He can just look at his brother and know he feels the same.

            Well, he can’t actually look at him right now. The separate jail cells kind of put a damper on that. On the other hand, the rest of the world’s inability to understand Evan comes in real handy in times like these. Myles can still hear his brother feed him ideas, and he can respond to the details with, “Yeah, bro,” or “Nah, bro,” and that idiot Barney won’t be any the wiser to what they’re discussing.

            Usually, they debate breakout plans and their next targets. Myles has the more technical mind, but Evan is the strategist. Evan throws out ideas, and his brother tells him what’s feasible with the resources available to them.

            Recently, however, their conversations have been harder to mask. See, they like being in their jail cells. For the moment, that is; it’s hard being kept from the one person other than himself he cares about. But, for the moment, their location puts them in prime position for information gathering.

            The latest comes in from Deputy Barney speaking to someone loudly over the phone. “I did hear about that storm at the beach! Where did _that_ come from!?”

            Despite their inability to see each other at the moment, the twins simultaneously roll their eyes at that. Myles hears his brother’s voice rumble in quietly from the next cell over. “Yeah, old news from the underground. Pynch’s plans always have feedback.”

            Things that shock the “brainiacs” on Griffin Rock are really, really predictable. The only people on this island with any chance of matching them are the Burnses and the Greenes, and even those families are completely clueless. If they were really so smart, they would realize the duo could have broken out already.

            Staying in jail suits them fine for their needs. They get fed for free. They get uninterrupted time to plan. It’s also a sweet deal for having eyes and ears around the island, especially when he can hack into the communications network right…about… _now_.

            It’s one of his weaker toys; it’s taken over a month to accomplish what some of his devices can do in a manner of hours or even minutes. But that just goes to show you that Griffin Rock security doesn’t check well or often enough for malevolent tech.

            The intercepted signals can be sent to either one of the brothers. They can take turns sleeping and listening in to the calls the device labels “important” due to a few programmed key words.

            One frustrating thing they notice, though, is that they can get communications sent to and from anyone on the island, except between the Burnses. From a Burns brat to someone else? Sure. Someone calling the Chief? No problem. But as far as communications between the family members to each other, there’s nothing but dead air.

            Which is especially weird considering the fact that they’ve put _all_ Burns’ communication on priority setting for their eavesdropping.

            Evan growls. Myles narrows his eyes at his data collector in agreement with his brother’s sentiment. “Yeah, what gives? Does that family _never_ talk unless face-to-face?”

            That doesn’t make sense. They’ve seen the rescuers at work, cooperating with each other’s plans via their comm. units. Heck, they’ve seen them order their robots around with the comm.s before. They must have some kind of signal dampener or something keeping his expert hacking out of their ears.

            His brother’s grumbling confirms he’s thinking the same thing. “I don’t know, bro. I can have every other system on this island in the _palm_ of my hand because I know how they work like the _back_ of mine.”

            It’s frustrating, not knowing what he’s up against. He’s a genius—a true one, unlike most of the pathetic scientist losers Griffin Rock has produced. The fact that there is a technology that eludes his control is like a slap to the face.

            “What I wouldn’t give to crack open a piece of the Burns’ tech and see what makes it tick.”

            “Maybe that can be arranged.” The smooth, feminine voice shocks both of them with its abruptness enough to have them slamming back against the sides of their cells. They hadn’t heard her enter, and they’re usually very careful to listen for _anyone’s_ entrance. Myles can hear his brother quietly berate himself for being taken unawares like that.

            “Madeline Pynch, what brings _you_ to our humble den?” the more vocal brother asks nonchalantly, ignoring the way his heart is still thumping from the shock of being intruded on. “Not exactly your usual stamping ground, is it? Wouldn’t have thought you’d be caught _dead_ here.”

            “Is that a threat?” She doesn’t even have the decency to sound offended. Her voice is level and indifferent. “And here, I was coming to make you a business offer.”

            Myles snorts. “Cool story, bro. Tell me how you managed to get in here without risking your precious public image, and then we’ll talk.”

            The look she gives him is completely flat, but she gives in to his request. She presses a button on her wristwatch, and she’s immediately engulfed in a hologram. The light around her encases her form in green first, then replaces her appearance with that of a tall, blonde guard. “Satisfied, or should I leave you to rot in those cells?”

            Evan laughs derisively at her, and his twin can’t help but smirk along. “Lady, we don’t need your help to get out.” Myles taps a code into a device on his hip, and the cell doors burst wide open. That, at least, gets a mildly impressed look out of the business woman.

            He shares a smile with his twin, glad to finally see his face again. “So, let’s talk deets and numbers, Pynch, ‘cause ain’t no way my bro and I are doing this for free.”

            “What ever gave you the idea you would have to?” she asks dryly, leading them out of the building. “Step into my mobile office, boys, because do I have a job for you…”


	23. Secret Smile

            Their lives are a series of emergencies. Chase voluntarily submitted himself to that fate the moment he became a Rescue Bot, and he is certain the same could be said for the rest of the team. As an enforcer, the stream of missions was segmented with reports and datapads.

            Being quite honest, it was part of his reason for joining the Rescue Bot forces to begin with. The analytical mind of an enforcer is accustomed to reports, but he finds great personal enjoyment in the field. Reports would still be required in the force, and he would be likely to fill out the bulk of them, but he would find a much larger percentage of his work in the line of action than in forms and words.

            It can be both exhilarating and exhausting. He takes great pleasure in his work, but Cybertronians, though more durable than humans, require rest breaks as well. There is no way to tell a sudden event, “Not today; we are tired,” but responding to too many calls in a row can leave them unable to efficiently do their jobs.

            As of late, events have been testing the limit at which exhilaration gives way to exhaustion, however. There is a strange phenomenon he has noticed wherein he feels as though his reserves are being drained quickly, although he can check and see that his tank is full or at a normally expected level, when Dani is in a high-stress situation. The sensation passes whenever he sees her safe, but the mere fact that it happens to begin with is peculiar.

            The phenomenon does not appear to affect his own missions with the Chief, although those have become more abnormal as well. Apparently, the revelation of his attraction to his daughter has been taken in a manner less explosive than he has been expecting but still quite uncomfortably. Chase can feel it in the silences between them.

            Luckily, some relief comes in the form of work. The call comes in the morning that Evan and Myles have escaped from prison. By now, there is a silent “again” every time the news is announced, but any sort of action is better than none, and it gets the police duo conversing comfortably again.

            “Surveillance video cuts out to static right around one o’clock last night,” Chief Burns says. “I would say that we need to have those twins searched more carefully for tech next time, but I think they’ve had some help this time around. Cameras caught an unfamiliar face posing as a guard entering the jailhouse just a few minutes before the feed cuts out.”

            “Might I suggest inquiring with the last person who stood guard before the imposter arrived?”

            “I was thinking the same thing.”

~----------~

            Their father and his partner come home disappointed. As the man steps out of the car, Dani is the first to ask, “What’s wrong?”

            “No leads on where Evan and Myles got off to,” he says. “The fake-guard’s profile doesn’t match anyone on the island save an image in the hologram database.”

            “We are still certain that they had assistance in their escape, as someone did drive to the station. However, whomever it was covered their tracks extremely well.”

            “We’ll have to keep a close look out. Kade, if any of the twins’ usual patterns start emerging, report it immediately. That goes for the rest of you when it’s your turn on monitor duty.”

            Dani wonders at the look her dad gives her when he leaves the room a little while later, but she doesn’t stop to ask him about it. “I know we don’t have the crooks behind bars, but why the long face, Chase?”

            He gives her a questioning look. “I…do not understand the question. My larger proportions mean that all of my frame pieces are longer and wider than a human’s.”

            “It means you look glum,” she explains, “and I don’t think Evan and Myles getting away is enough to get you down.”

            A comically serious and contemplative expression overtakes his face. “I have been attempting to reassess, and thus understand, some finer points of emotion and human social interaction I had previously believed I already understood.”

            “We’re complicated creatures,” the pilot jokes. “It can take someone born into our cultures years to figure some conventions out and still come out confused when talking with some other humans. Kade at least has the excuse that there’s not a lot of brain under that muscle.”

            “You _are_ complicated creatures. I know some Cybertronians who would take your shorter lifespans and lower level of technological advancement for a sign of lower sentience as well. They would be sorely mistaken. You are nothing short of amazing.” His lips curve into a tiny smile that she isn’t sure is intentional.

            Dani is suddenly aware of her heart beating in her chest and warmth in her cheeks. Trying to rid herself of the sensation, she shakes her head like a wet dog. “I, uh. Have to go. I’m going out tonight. Good luck with those social thingies.” It’s embarrassing how difficult it is thinking of the words right now.

            She rushes from the room before she can make herself feel like more of a fool.

            Her make-up date with Taylor is tonight, and she has to get ready, anyway. She isn’t the type for dresses, but some dates _do_ call for something a little fancier than she usually wears. In her case, it means black trousers, a rosy blouse, and a sweater. Totally fancy.

            Taylor picks her up in front of the Firehouse and drives her to the restaurant. Neither of them is big on the really expensive places, but he does pick something a whole step above fast-food. The atmosphere is really relaxed and comfortable.

            One moment, she’s chatting easily with him, the next, she’s staring at the table and wondering what it would be like to bring Chase here. He wouldn’t fit through the door, and the variety of “human fuel” available might have to be explained, but she wonders how he’d like it just on a hypothetical, “if he was human” level. He may have a stiff and formal manner, but somehow she gets the feeling that he would feel more in his element in a place like this than somewhere fancier, too. Maybe it’s just that difference between being polite and being aristocratic.

            “Dani?” Taylor’s voice breaks through her thoughts like a paddle in a calm lake, sending ripples of awareness through her mind.

            She smiles guiltily and looks up at him through her eyelashes. “Oh, sorry Taylor. I didn’t mean to zone out on you. I was just thinking about a friend of my father’s. I think he would appreciate this place.”

            “Thinking about another man on our date? Should I be jealous?” he teases.

            Dani knows he doesn’t mean it really, but she can feel her cheeks burn anyway. She shakes her head and laughs. “I don’t know; I think he makes a better Prince Charming than you do~” The lilt in her voice is meant to be playful, but she can feel something in her chest leap. “He’s way older than you are, too, though,” she adds, partially to herself.

            Taylor takes a sip of his soda before nodding and humming mock-thoughtfully. “Must be why, then. Chivalry is dying out with the older generations, don’t you know?”

            “Good riddance. Chivalry isn’t all it’s made out to be, you know.” Her smile softens. “I’d prefer a good man over one who follows archaic societal codes.”

            He beams back. “Then you’ve come to the right man. You look great, by the way.”

            “You, too.”

            She’s about to take a sip of her own drink when there’s a very loud boom—more of a loud collision sound than an explosion—outside the building. Immediately, she’s out of her seat and assessing the situation. Looks like a crashed armored truck to her, but there’s a screeching in the distance that tells her whatever’s going on isn’t over.

            “Taylor—” She stops when she turns back to face him. He’s already heading the exact opposite direction from hers.

            He at least has the presence of mind to look ashamed when he looks at her. “Look, Dani, this is your thing. You react to danger by jumping right into it. My response is to seek safety and help only if I find someone already injured. Come find me when the danger blows over, and I'll give you a ride home, okay?”

            Dani is left gobsmacked. She can only nod and let him leave. On a logical level, she can understand it. Taylor has a bit of medical training. That doesn’t mean he’s trained for rescue action of the kind she and her family see on a regular basis. Still, for some reason, it’s almost like she expected him to run out at her side anyway, and she has to take a moment to adjust her worldview before she can run out to face peril like she always does.


	24. Who Knows

            The stream of rescues that make up their lives should be a refuge where he puts his emotions on hold for the sake of other people’s lives, but lately, they’ve only been making Kade feel worse. When this all started, he just wanted Heatwave to be his normal jerk self, but now, Heatwave being his usual jerk self makes something in his stomach twist.

            This time is no different. He can feel the ache coming on the moment he sees, on the monitors, a motorbike blast an armored truck clear down the street. Sounding the alarm, he pushes past his reluctance to be around his partner. Missions are more important, he keeps reminding himself.

            Dani is already at the scene of the drama. “Tch, figures,” he says. For just that moment when he sees her, he forgets his trouble with the triple-changer, and his stomach unclenches.

            Kade jumps out of his partner’s fire truck mode and runs to help his sister pull the driver and one other passenger of the crashed vehicle to safety. The specific situation is new and bizarre, but they’ve all done this rescue thing enough that he knows without looking that Heatwave is turning his attention to the mysteriously powerful motorcyclist.

          They’ve just gotten the two men from the truck running away when they hear Heatwave shout, “What the—!” Just about the time Chase, Boulder, and their partners show up on the scene, the cyclist is driving up the red ‘Bot’s arm like a ramp and flying over the armored truck.

            Almost frozen in complete shock, the humans can only watch until the bike lands and speeds on its merry way.

            “Dani, go home and get Blades,” the Burns’ father orders. “Graham, Boulder, guard the truck in case someone tries to steal its contents. Kade, Heatwave, we’re going after that motorist.”

            Heatwave transforms back into truck mode and pops a door open. Kade doesn’t miss a beat, jumping into the driver’s seat as soon as he can. They’re so in sync with each other that Heatwave gives chase the moment his partner is buckled in, and it doesn’t give the man whiplash.

            It does give him strange butterflies in his stomach, though, which he tries to ignore.

            After chasing the motorist for several miles and not catching up, suddenly, their quarry turns around and drives straight at them. The truck tries to block their path, but the biker fires something into his side, knocking him back. Kade has to hold on tight to the wheel and seat to avoid slamming his head against the window.

            Chase swerves around and darts after the criminal. “Halt, helmeted miscreant! You are violating—guh!” He barely manages to evade the next blast from whatever weapon the mysterious, dangerous biker is carrying.

            Kade notices Dani and Blades catching up to them by the hook lowering from the sky and catching the motorbike. The bike’s rider doesn’t seem to mind being lifted straight into the air. In fact, when their vehicle is high enough in the air, they let go and let themself fall.

            The rescuers gasp collectively, but Chase is the fastest to transform into root mode and catch the fallen rider. Despite his quick thinking, the biker’s head rolls off and exposes snapped, sparking wires.

            “An android,” the Chief marvels. “Dani, get that bike back to the Firehouse. We’ll examine everything back home. Maybe we can find a clue to who did this.”

            “Dad,” says Graham through the comm. “There isn’t anything in the truck. We’ve checked. The driver was on his way to pick something _up_. That motorist either didn’t know or wanted to stop them—”

            “Or was playing decoy. The motorist wasn’t human. We’ll discuss everything when we get home. Everyone, head back.”

~----------~

            Boulder hums and stares a little longer before turning to the larger group. “Analysis shows the android’s circuitry resembles that of Cybertronian technology.”

            “What, you mean that thing really was alive?” Kade asks, disbelieving.

            “No,” the green ‘Bot says. “Non-sentient tech. This machine is—was—sparkless.”

            Dani goes rigid at that statement. “Morocco. He’s learning how to use the tech he stole to make new weaponry and MorBots, isn’t he?”

            “I…don’t think so,” cuts in Graham. “Morocco is a bit egotistical. He puts his symbol on pretty much everything, but we couldn’t find even a small one on her—it.”

            Heatwave raises an optic ridge at the engineer’s verbal slip, but he doesn’t comment. He’s been patient and quiet through most of this meeting, and there are more important things to discuss than the human’s pronoun choice for an unthinking robot. “The tech had to have come from him, though, right? So who would he sell our tech to?”

            “Pretty much anyone, knowing his moral standing,” Chief Burns points out. “The question is at what price, and who has the money to pay it?”

           “You think Ms. Pynch is behind this?” asks Graham, being the first to figure out what their father is implying.

            “It’s a definite possibility. I don’t think we can say anything conclusive just yet, and there’s still a question of why she would want to take out an armored truck, but I don’t think we can discount her from our small suspects list just yet, either.”

            The debate continues for a little while longer. Then, when the team has a list of people on the island to keep an eye on, the humans slowly filter out of the bunker.

            Heatwave finds the way Kade avoids looking at him and hastily-but-clumsily makes his exit even more interesting than Graham’s slip of the tongue.

~----------~

            Between the excitement of the mission and the turbulent emotion that comes with being around Heatwave, Kade really needs to be away from the Firehouse for a few hours. He at least remembers to warn his family he’ll be out this time, and he promises to keep his comm. on just in case. But once that’s taken care of, he heads to Hayley’s house without looking back.

            She is a little surprised to see him. He admits he should have called beforehand. The details are a little blurry, but she isn’t busy, and they end up cuddled on the couch, watching some kind of movie. It’s a comedy, he thinks; what they’re watching is less important than spending time together. Hayley seems to sense how stressed out he is.

            Kade curls his arm a little tighter around her waist and buries his nose in her hair. She smells like lilacs and lavender and all sorts of flowers, and he can’t decide how much of that is her shampoo and how much of it’s her garden. Either way, the scent usually calms him and makes him happy, but now, it just makes him feel more uncomfortable.

            _She_ is making him uncomfortable when she usually calms him. Maybe that’s unfair; she isn’t doing anything wrong. She’s still soft and warm and makes idle conversation (more for the sake of letting him hear her voice than anything else), but seeing her face and being this close to her is bringing back that strange feeling of guilt.

            This isn’t how things are supposed to be. It’s supposed to be easier than this. As a rescuer, he’s a star. He has enough awesome to power a lifetime. He has a girlfriend who is gorgeous, smart, intuitive, and probably an empath, judging from how easily she reads moods. He isn’t supposed to work with aliens, not supposed to be friends with one, and definitely not supposed to be considering the idea that he might actually really be in love with him.

            “Kade?” Speaking of Hayley’s ability to read emotions, she twists around in his hold and stares into his eyes with a look of concern. Her hands come up to rest on either side of his face. “Is everything okay? Did something happen on the job? Is everything all right at home? Is Cody still okay?”

            He struggles to find an answer to her barrage of questions. However, the longer it takes him to reply, the more he can see the panic in her gaze rise. “Cody is fine. Everyone is okay. It’s nothing that serious, I promise.”

            In fluid motion, she sits back, pulls his hands from her waist, and presses them to her lips. “Whatever it is, it’s hurting you, and that’s serious enough for me. Please tell me.”

            Even then, he hesitates. Finally, with a sigh, he settles on telling her at least part of the story. He can’t while he’s still looking at her, though. He’s too ashamed. He looks at their laps instead, letting his bangs fall over his eyes like curtains. “A friend of mine told me he’s in love with me.”

            There’s a pause so still and so chilly that Kade almost thinks time has frozen. He can’t even hear his heart beat or feel either one of them breathing. There isn’t a bit of movement as far as he can tell.

            Then, all at once, Hayley pulls away from him, and time restarts. Without even thinking about it, his head snaps up and he reaches for her. Her next words stop him in his tracks: “You love him back.”

            “I love _you_ ,” he says. There might be a hint of desperation in his tone as he continues, “I love him, but that doesn’t mean I’m _in_ love with him. I’m _in_ love with _you!_ ”

            The words hang in the air, echo in his ears, and haunt him as he waits for a response—any kind of response—from his girlfriend. He hangs on the edge of his emotional stability, just wanting her to say or do anything other than staring straight at the T.V. Maybe only a few seconds pass, or maybe even less, but it feels like an eternity goes by before she turns back to him.

            She smiles at him, but her eyes hold something like heartbreak or pity.


	25. So Contagious

            “Yeah, not a problem. Really, it was fine. Talk to you soon. Bye.” Dani plops back on her bed, letting the hand holding her cellphone drop limply to the side as she hangs up. She sighs at the ceiling.

            It’s strange, but where her heart once fluttered at the sound of Taylor’s voice, now she feels a dull, barely-there lightness, if even that. He hasn’t stopped being cute on a visual level, and she’ll never forget the rush of most of their dates, but the feeling just isn’t the same. She can’t shake the disappointment she felt at him running away from _real_ danger.

            She acts; he reacts. He said as much in more words. For a while, that didn’t seem like such a problem, so why now?

            When she asks herself the question, she doesn’t expect to find the answer so quickly. In reality, it’s actually pretty simple: she hadn’t noticed sooner. She just knew he was a cute pilot with a few shared interests outside of flying. Finding out if he would be the type to run into a rescue with her never seemed that important of a concern. It seemed like an obvious “yes” anyway, considering how dangerous hobbies like _paragliding_ can be, but she guesses controlled-danger is a different world than emergency-danger, now that she really has to think about it.

            Dani reaches above her head and grabs one of her heart-shaped pillows and lifts it towards the ceiling. For several minutes, she just stares at it while she tries to sort out her dwindling feelings. Then, with another sigh, she pulls it to her chest and hugs it tight, almost like she’s trying to absorb it and fill the growing void in her chest.

            She feels like she’s back in high school. She definitely hasn’t been this melodramatic about her love-life since then.

            What is there to really angst about? So Taylor isn’t everything she expected him to be. So she’s starting to find her affection for him fading. That doesn’t make this the end of the world. Relationships aren’t perfect, and they sometimes end. There will always be the future. Okay, sure, she’s allowed a little time to be sad that things aren’t working out quite the way she wanted, but she will live and get over it.

            And if it ends, things will still be fine. She’s young, and the world is full of other people. ‘ _And aliens,_ ’ some part of her brain provides.

            Dani sits up suddenly, startled by the thought. Before she can question it, memories of Chase leaping into action—before the alien scare, protecting her father, catching the android—fill her thoughts. Where is this coming from? She knows she’s been more interested in the police-‘Bot lately, but that doesn’t mean she should be thinking about him in this kind of context.

            Her arms tighten around her pillow. Her cheeks flush. The more she tries to convince herself not to think about him, the more she finds her heart racing.

            What has she gotten herself into?

~----------~

            “I ran back the footage,” Cody says, holding up the comm.-tab. “You can’t see exactly where the android came from because there’s static for a few minutes, but the general area is pretty telling.”

            For a few seconds, there is nothing but an abandoned warehouse. Then, there is complete static, and then the android is suddenly on the road. The warehouse, however, is familiar to Chief Burns and Chase both. “That’s one of Evan and Myles’ old hideouts,” the Chief says.

            “But what use would those scoundrels have with Cybertronian technology if not to perpetrate a theft?” Chase asks, cocking his head to one side.

           “My question is how they got their hands on it in the first place. Neither of them have the funds to afford Dr. Morocco’s fees, and I doubt even _they_ could get past his security,” the Burns’ father points out. “Either they had to have stolen the tech from someone else who wouldn’t report it, or it wasn’t stolen at all.”

            “That, too, leads to a question: are they collaborating with another criminal, or is someone trying to frame them?”

            “My guess, considering that they had to have had help breaking out, is the latter.”

            “Shall we check the warehouse for clues?” The police-mech transforms into car mode and pops his doors open for the Chief and Cody both.

            They find tire tracks outside the warehouse, which is a good sign that they made the right decision. Chief Burns insists on his son remaining at a safe distance while the police duo takes a closer look.

            The inside of the warehouse is dark and dusty. Chase turns on his lights to afford them a better visual. He can hear his partner cough against some of the airborne particulates. “Sir, are you all right?”

          “Fine, just—” His thought is interrupted by another stream of coughs. “Ah. This place isn’t easy on the lungs.”

            There is an almost eerie nature to the quiet of the building. Even with his superior senses, the mech can only barely hear the scurrying of small rodents. They creep deeper into the building very slowly. For all they know, someone is still lurking around in the cover of shadow.

            Just when they are beginning to suspect that there is nothing more to be found here, the Chief steps on a creaky floorboard. Suddenly, a spiked, metal pole swings out at him, and Chase has to react quickly to pull his partner out of harm’s way. The moment he does that, however, a trap-door opens beneath them, and he only barely manages to catch the edge of the floor before they fall through.

            “Okay, that’s enough excitement for one day,” says Chief Burns. His chest is heaving against Chase’s hand in a manner he has come to associate with panic. He must concur with the sentiment.

~----------~                                                            

            Upon her father’s return, the question of how things went barely leaves Dani’s lips before he answers, “Poorly. This whole thing reeks of Evan and Myles, but there’s no way they did this on their own. Too large scale.”

            “Think maybe our three biggest suspects are in this together?” she suggests. “Ms. Pynch could have easily gotten them out of jail, and we know she has the means to pay Morocco for stolen advanced tech.”

            Chief Burns sighs and rubs his forehead. “Maybe, but even being seen around Evan and Myles could be risky for her business, unless she framed it as some kind of reform program. But if that were the case, she would have made it much more public. What would she have to gain that’s worth the risk?”

            “The twins are pretty talented with tech,” Cody points out. “Maybe she’s getting them to build something for some of her off-the-books business moves.”

            “It’s possible, but then, why send the decoy android?” Neither of his children who are in the room has an explanation for that. After a pause, he turns back to his daughter and asks, “Speaking of last night, how is Taylor doing?”

            “Taylor?” It takes Dani an embarrassing amount of time to even remember who he is, and when she does, she flushes with shame. “Uh, he’s…fine.” The words come out too dull.

            Even Cody, who would have once teased her about her boyfriend, is silent. She doesn’t have to look at him to know he senses something wrong. She ignores his inquisitive look. She pretends not to notice the emotional energy radiating off of him. Something about it stings her right in the heart. “Will you excuse me?” she says quickly, just wanting to get out of there.

            Dani takes the lift down to the garage and looks around. By accident, she meets eye-to-optic with Chase. He smiles, almost without thinking about it, and she can’t help but return the expression. The moment she catches herself doing it, though, she kicks herself mentally and looks away.

            This shouldn’t be happening. She shouldn’t be drawn to him.

            A little while longer, she finds the orange mech she tells herself she was looking for to begin with. “Blades, I’m in the mood to fly. Let’s go!”

            “Awww, do we have to?” he whines.

            “Yes. Now.”

            His demeanor changes instantly as though he, too, can sense something about her she would really prefer him not to. He has the good sense to keep his lips shut, at least. She doesn’t think she could handle anyone saying anything to her just now.

            The takeoff is made with an awkwardness that hasn’t been there since they first started working together. Dani is tense and irritable, and Blades, in reaction, is tense and fearful. She doesn’t seem to notice or appreciate how willing to follow her orders he is as a result, even through maneuvers that would normally make him sick just thinking about.

            She pushes his stick a little too hard one too many times, though, and that’s when he has to break. “Hey! You’re hurting me! What’s going on that you have to take it out on _me?_ ”

            “I’m not taking it out on you!” she snaps.

            “Yes, you are! You don’t have to yell at me, either. I’m your friend, remember? I’m just trying to look out for you. So…” His confidence falters for a moment before returning full-force. “So, spill it. What has you riled up?”

            Dani is stubbornly set on not answering him at first. But after staring at his sincere, caring face on the screen for long enough, the sighs and relaxes, if only a little. “Taylor is…I think I’m losing interest in him, and I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

            “Nothing’s wrong with you,” Blades says, voice soft. “People fall out of love sometimes. That’s okay. It doesn’t make you any less of the awesome pilot I know you to be…when you’re not angry and yelling.”

            “But something _is_ really wrong,” she insists in a murmur. “I think I’m in love with Chase.”

            His response is not what she’s expecting. “Scrap, well, _I_ could have told you that.”


	26. Distraction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Sorry, not sorry.

            “Wait, you knew!?” Dani is in complete disbelief. She hadn’t even known she was falling for Chase until after that substandard date with Taylor. And Blades isn’t even inside her mind! How could he tell if he didn’t know the way the police-‘Bot kept creeping into her thoughts?

            “Well, I thought I knew once, but then Cody told me it might not be the case. But then you two just kept on making goo-goo eyes at each other, and it was kind of obvious,” the helicopter-former rambles.

            “We weren’t—” She stops herself short and really thinks about it. Yeah, they kind of have been making goo-goo eyes at each other. Mortified that he saw it so easily yet it took her so long to realize it, she face-palms. “Do the others know? Does _Chase_ know?” The latter wouldn’t be too bad. She’s sure the mech still likes her; Blades’ words imply as much. At the very least, it might make moving from this point easier…hopefully…

            He hums thoughtfully, optics rolling up and to the side like he’s trying to remember. “I think your dad has an idea, but I’m not sure Chase does. He’s better with emotions some times more than others.”

            Dani is about to reply when a magenta beam shoots suddenly out at them. They swoop out of the way, and it misses just by a hair. Another beam isn’t too far behind the last one. The duo find themselves ducking and weaving between volleys of blasts that miss so nearly that even Dani can feel the intense heat coming off of them from within the cockpit.

            “We need back up!” she yells into the comm.

            “Dani?” It’s Graham’s voice that transmits back to them, alert but confused. “Where are you? What’s going on?”

            “Twenty minutes north of home. Someone’s shooting at us, I can’t—” She gasps as one of Blades’ propellers is hit and they start to crash down.

~----------~

            Graham sprints into the room, visibly distraught. “Dani called for backup, but her signal was just cut. I can’t get anything from her or Blades but static.”

            Immediately, everyone kicks into high gear. Chief Burns starts shouting orders, but it is more out of habit than anything. Everyone already knows where they are needed, as if by instinct. Cody rushes to the control room to try to get a visual of the situation. The Rescue Bots transform into vehicle mode and wait just long enough for their partners to leap into their seats before taking off. There is a greater urgency to their actions than even some of their most dangerous and time-sensitive missions.

            Chase pushes his speed well over what would typically be acceptable. It would be factually inaccurate to say that he is only thinking about Dani, though she consumes more than a fair portion of his thoughts. Blades is in his worries, too. He can only hope to find them alive.

~----------~

            It’s a struggle to get her eyes open against the throbbing protest of her head. She can’t even remember closing her eyes to begin with or what she was doing before. Did she fall asleep? Why would she have her helmet on for that, though?

            She…She has her helmet on? And what’s that smell? Smoke?

            Alerted by that scent, she finally manages to get her eyes open. None of the glass around her is broken, miraculously, but there’s dirt just outside the windshield to her right. She can just start to see a couple of figures in the distance, but other than that, there isn’t much to note. The screen in the middle of the controls is dark.

            “Blades?” she asks, fear spiking up at the lack of his voice. A tiny wave of relief washes over her when he groans and his screen flickers back on. At least he’s alive. “Are you okay?”

            “My rotors…I can barely feel them…” he moans. “Pain…So much pain…”

            “Let me comm. for help.” Dani frowns when she finds her clip damaged. “Well, there goes that plan. Can you reach the others?”

            “I’m trying, but my processor feels all fuzzy.”

            The approaching figures finally come close enough to see them clearly. Somehow, even though she’s known they were up to something, it’s still a surprise to find Evan and Myles headed their way. The less verbal of the duo is holding a really large, high-tech gun of some sort.

            Blades shakes his helm on screen, then transforms into root mode. The moment he does, another beam hits him in the abdomen, and he spins from the force. He’s knocked to his knees.

            “Don’t bother fighting back, Burns Brat,” Myles mocks. “We have the superior fire-power.” He pauses suddenly, listening to some unseen partner from what she gathers from his next comment. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your undies in a bunch, lady. We’ll have ‘em in working condition…or at least reparable.”

            “Dani, get out and warn the others,” murmurs Blades.

            “But you—”

            “Need to give you time to get away before they blast you, too,” he says, cutting off her protest. “Human lives are more important than our cover or our own safety, and that includes _your_ life.” He opens his cockpit. The pilot looks about ready to object again, but before she can, he gives her a push that has her stumbling out onto the ground. “ _Go_.”

            She finally takes the hint and gets running. She hears his cockpit close behind her, but she doesn’t look back. All there is to do is find their family as soon as possible.

~----------~

            Chase has to screech to a halt when he sees Dani appear on the road, waving her arms. He skids along the road, managing to stop only mere inches from her. From the sound of things, the other two are having the same trouble behind him. The Chief exits him in a hurry and rushes to her. He puts his hands firmly on her shoulders.

            “Are you okay? Where is Blades?”

            She appears to have difficulty speaking for the first several seconds. “Myles,” she finally manages to choke out, “and Evans. They have this…this ray gun. Took me and Blades right out of the sky. He stayed behind to fight them off.”

            Chief Burns glances out down the road for only a moment, then turns back to her. “Get in. We’ll need you to show us exactly where they are.”

            As they speed down the road again, Chase cannot help but keep checking Dani every so often. She looks miserable. It hurts his spark to see her like that, but it only makes him more determined to assist their friend.

            When they find him, though, it is more of a shock than they are expecting. Blades is burnt and dented. His rotors have obviously taken the brunt of the damage, but there are scratches and injuries practically all over him. Most disturbing, however, is that he is standing completely still, eyes staring straight forward, and without the slightest sign of the twins being near him.

            If he had hair, it would certainly be standing on end.

            Boulder is the first to transform and speak up. “Blades, are you all right?”

            Without warning, the helicopter-former lashes out at his teammate. The bulldozer leaps back. Heatwave and Chase transform into robot mode instantly, trying to wrestle the orange mech away from the green one.

            “What’s gotten into you!?” the triple-changer growls. He lets out a cry of pain as a beam from the twins’ gun flies out from the trees around and hits him in the back.

            The area erupts into chaos as the team is torn between fighting off Blades’ strange turn in behavior and the barrage of shots from Evan. Chase tries to locate the twins in the cover of the foliage all around, but they keep in constant motion. The pain from the hard-to-dodge shots prevents him from getting too close to them, compounding the issue.

            It becomes a blur of moving mechs and blazing light, punches thrown, leaps made, and shots fired. If anyone stopped to look around for even a moment, they might be trapped in a dizzying, paralyzing confusion that would only bode ill for their well-being.

            Which only makes matters even more puzzling when Dani suddenly says, “Let me out.”

~----------~

            Chase is so busy gawking at her that he almost gets hit by the blaster fire. “What?”

            “You heard me: let me out,” she repeats. She has a plan. She knows it’s dangerous, but it could be the thing to stop this muddled mess of a rumble.

            “Dani,” her father reasons. “If you take a direct hit from his gun—”

            “I know,” she says. The mental image is unpleasant, and it’s almost enough to stop her, but it’s not quite there yet. “I won’t. I’ll be extra careful.”

            The police mech has another near miss. “I cannot allow you to—”

           “Chase. Yes, you can.” Dani places a comforting hand on his dashboard and gives her dad a determined look.

            With a sigh, he reluctantly nods. “Chase, let her out.”

            “But—”

            “Now.”

            Still obviously disapproving of this course of action, the police-‘Bot transforms back into car mode. Dani pops his door open and rolls out as quickly as she can. The blaster-fire scorches the back of her hair. She rolls onto her feet and leaps into the cover of the trees as quickly as humanly possible, spurred on by the rush of adrenaline that comes with danger.

            She darts as swiftly and quietly as she can manage through the forest that surrounds them. She can only hope that the twins are too distracted by the battle to see her coming.

            The answer is a resounding, and very lucky, “yes.” Dani manages to work her way around to just a few feet behind the brothers without them noticing. From there, she creeps forward a tiny bit at a time until she has a clear shot at them. Myles has some kind of control in his hands, and if she were the betting type, she would put a ton of money on that being the cause for Blades’ sudden change of behavior.

            Without another thought, she dives right at him. They collide with a loud crashing noise. Her hands close around the control. She tries to yank it from him, but he has a tight grip. He thrashes against her, knocking her right in the jaw, the chest, the stomach, and anywhere his free limbs can reach. She refuses to let go. Her own grasp on the control constricts until she can hear a crack and feel it crumble and spark in her gloved hands.

            Any feeling of victory she might have had is short-lived, however. She feels the heat and hears the whir of the weapon charging up right behind her head.  Evan growls, and she closes her eyes, fully prepared for this moment to be her last. She braces herself for the immense pain of her life ending.

            And then the wind is knocked out of her as she’s thrown back into a tree. She hears the blast go off. For a moment, even nature is completely and utterly silent like it’s holding its collective breath. Then, everyone gasps.

            Dani opens her eyes slowly, but she immediately wants to close them again. She barely holds in a scream, and even then, she’s probably only able to because her lungs are still working their way back to breathing normally.

            On the bright side, the gun is out of Evan’s hands. On the down side, blue liquid is gushing from a gaping hole in Chase’s shoulder.


	27. Running Up that Hill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rescue Bots get help patching up their fallen teammate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...This wasn't meant to be a crossover with Prime, but Medix doesn't have a personality (at time of writing).

          Boulder presses what used to be a blanket to the energon-leaking joint. “This is bad. This is beyond my skills.” They need a real medic. His minimal training and their self-repair systems go a long way, but there are some injuries he isn’t even close to prepared to deal with. The fact that he isn’t freaking out right now is a testament to his training.

            Blades returns from the Autobots’ communications room. “Optimus is sending a medic from his team. Someone named Ratchet.” His voice is straining to remain calm, and he’s twitchy. What semblance of control he’s keeping breaks down before long. “Primus, this is all my fault!”

            “Blades, you couldn’t know what Evan and Myles were planning,” Chief Burns says, trying to calm him down. “Even if you could, now is not the time to blame yourself.”

            A flash of light announces the arrival of the medic. The other conscious Autobots in the room can sense his age and experience immediately and step out of his way with almost a sense of reverence. “Status?” Ratchet asks, breezing over to the table where they’ve lain out Chase’s frame.

            “Blast punctured lateral to the chest on the anterior side deep and ends medial in the posterior side. Possible damage to or proximal to the spark-chamber. No cauterization as evidenced by the flow of energon,” Boulder provides hastily.

            “I’ll see what I can do, but I need to see what I’m dealing with first.” The medic brushes the construction-mech’s hands away from the wound. There’s an amazing speed with which he gets to work. Without looking up from his examination, he harrumphs and says, “Optimus is going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

~----------~

            Frankie closes her well-worn copy of _Just Visiting This Planet_ and sets it on her lap the moment she hears Dani groan softly, waking from her pain medication-induced sleep. “Having sweet dreams there?”

            “You take a few blows to the head and see how you like waking up after,” the pilot jokes, eyes squinted against the light. She takes a moment to grimace at her own words. “Actually, I take that back. Don’t hurt yourself.”

            “Wasn’t planning on it.” She shifts a little in her seat. Hospital chairs are somehow even less comfortable than school chairs, and if her father has a portable cushion to make them easier to bear, he forgot to tell her about it. “And I hope _you_ aren’t planning on fracturing your clavicle again anytime soon.”

            “Nope, but I thought the same thing the last time I did it, too. At least by now, I’ve learned not to even _try_ moving my arm.” She winces. “I just wish the adrenaline had let me know it happened in the first place. Could have saved me a lot of trouble later.”

            “Kade and Heatwave headed back to the Firehouse while you were out,” says Frankie, changing the subject. “Cody said he’d be on his way.”

            The scientists’ daughter can see the injured woman start to make a comment, but it dies on her lips. “Thank you for staying with me. I hate hospitals.”

            “Not a problem.” She almost says something about being family, but she isn’t entirely sure Dani would be welcome to hearing it. They aren’t as close as she is to Cody or the other Burnses are to her dad. There’s still a certain truth to it, but there’s also enough distance between the two of them that it doesn’t feel quite right.

            The two of them lapse into silence broken only by the beeps and wheezes of the machinery around them. Frankie thinks she has officially found a side to science that isn’t the slightest bit fun. Hospitals are so dreary. White walls feel tiny and lifeless, and the lack of movement doesn’t help matters. She finds herself agreeing with Dani: she hates these places.

            “I shouldn’t have made Chase let me out,” the woman says suddenly.

            Frankie frowns. From what little she heard about the situation, Chase took a shot that went straight through him. Diagonally. And judging from the fact that Chief Burns isn’t in a creaky little hospital bed, too, it had to have been on the passenger’s side. “If you hadn’t gotten out, you might have been vaporized,” she reasons.

            Dani glares at the ceiling, unable to turn because of her collarbone. “Chase only got shot because he ran in to save me from being shot. If I hadn’t insisted on getting out, he would have had no reason to get so close to Evan.”

            “And if you hadn’t gotten out, then what would have happened? Evan would have kept shooting until the Bots were down anyway.” The girl tosses her book onto the seat as she stands and crosses her arms over her chest. She can give an impressively stern look for a child of her age, and it would be a surprise if the pilot _couldn’t_ feel it on her without looking. “What do you expect to happen? Chase’s healing will suddenly be better or faster if you blame yourself?”

            “Chase might not live, and it’s because of me. If anything goes wrong, we should at least be honest about the cause.”

            “Chase is going to be fine,” Cody’s voice cuts in. The boy thanks the nurse who led him to the room and closes the door behind him. “Optimus sent a really talented medic. He’s going to give Chase the best care, and everything will be just fine.”

            “Cody—” Dani’s voice starts off sharp, but then she deflates. “Yeah, okay. Everything is going to be fine.”

            Maybe it’s just because of how their conversation was going before her friend showed up, but Frankie gets the distinct impression that his sister doesn’t mean it. Still, she isn’t about to begrudge Cody whatever comfort he needs right now. She takes one of his hands in hers and gives it a light squeeze.

~----------~

            Concentrating becomes difficult with an audience in the room. Boulder has to applaud the more talented medic for his ability to focus through it all. Maybe it comes from being on the warfront. He knows he probably couldn’t do that.

            He keeps getting diverted by little noises, like Kade’s impatient pacing and moaning or Heatwave trying to get him to shush or Blades’ little sighs. In other situations, it might not be as much of a problem. However, Chase’s procedure is a very delicate one.

            Soon enough, Ratchet himself seems to get fed-up with the other mechs and humans. “We need space and quiet. Everyone who isn’t helping, out.” Any protest is met with a loud, “Ay-yuh-pup! _Out_.”

            “Thank you,” the bulldozer-former says. “They mean well, but they’re not really good with being quiet.”

            “Feh. I noticed. Hand me the pliers, Bulk—” Whatever the medic is about to say, it seems to cause him pain. He stalls for a moment, then finishes, “Boulder.”

            They work with minimal talk. The main conversation is in tools passed and actions to be taken. It’s a long process of welds and open chassis and working around essential wires just to be able to _examine_ the spark chamber. Chase’s vital signs fluctuate as they work.

            At some point, Graham wanders in to check on them, taking a break from his analysis of the weapon Evan had been wielding and the control Dani crushed. Ratchet doesn’t seem to mind his presence too much, despite some barely-audible mutter about “humans.” It probably helps that Graham is content to just watch quietly. Eventually, he returns to his own work.

            After hours of work, Ratchet finishes up the final weld. Intakes hissing in a slow release of air, he relaxes as much as Boulder can imagine someone who works on the ‘front is able to. He pulls a cloth out of subspace and wipes down his hands and tools.

            “Is he going to be okay?” the green Rescue Bot asks.

            “Too soon to tell,” the medic replies. “Keep a watch on his readings over the next few days. With luck, he’ll stabilize within that time. If anything goes wrong, call me. I must return to my own base.” Then, into his comm., “Ground-bridge.”

~----------~

            Everyone looks up when the hospital room door next opens. At the sight of Chief Burns, Cody stands up, accidentally yanking Frankie with him. “Dad, is he—?”

            “Resting.” Something about his expression tells them all they need to know: Chase’s fate still isn’t certain. As though realizing he still has the kids worried, he bends down to their level and puts a hand on his son’s shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. Just keep holding on to hope.” After receiving a nod from the blond, he turns to Frankie. “Would you walk home with him? I need a moment with Dani.”

            “Will do, sir,” she says.

            The kids close the door behind them when they leave. The scientist’s daughter can sense a sadness still hanging over her friend and holds his hand a little tighter in response. “It’s going to be all right. You said Optimus sent a medic, right?”

            “Yeah,” he says, a little dully. Then, he jerks his chin up. “Yeah! He’ll be fine. He just needs to rest, and then he’ll be back to normal.” Cody’s hand tightens back on hers for a moment, and he and Frankie share a grin.


	28. Kiss the Girl

            “The gun Evan used is basically the same as the blaster the android utilized before but with the power amplified several times over,” Graham explains. “Myles’ controller also uses something adapted from Cybertronian tech, just based on the circuitry.”

            “Well, that gives me a few ideas on where to start with an interrogation,” his father says, “but I doubt the two of them will talk.” Knowing the twins as well as they do, it’s pretty much guaranteed that they won’t. There is a chance they might if only to incriminate their partner on this particular deal, but otherwise, it’s unlikely.

            “I’ll ask Boulder to take another look and see if there’s anything more he can tell us when he has more free time.” He feels a little guilty for his phrasing practically the moment the words leave his mouth. Chase isn’t just some side project Boulder has been working on; he’s a part of their family.

            Chief Burns puts a hand on his shoulder and gives him an understanding smile. “No need to rush anything.”

            “Right.” The engineer laughs a little nervously and clears his throat. “So, Dani should be getting out of the hospital soon, right?”

            “Tomorrow,” he confirms. “Kade said he was going over to visit her this morning.”

            “I think I’ll join them, unless anything comes up.” Graham decides to leave through the garage, which leads him past Boulder calmly monitoring Chase, Blades being fidgety and restless, and Heatwave looking oddly sulky and irritable. He diverts from his path to approach the red mech. “What’s wrong? Is Kade being thick-headed again?”

            “In a manner of speaking,” the firefighter grumbles.

            When he doesn’t offer up any more information, the engineer just raises a curious eyebrow and stares for a moment. No response is given still, so he shrugs, turns, and continues on his way.

            At the hospital, Dani is propped up on pillows and has the arm on her injured side in a sling. She and Kade are laughing pretty hard at something when he walks in. “Glad to see you didn’t break your funny bone, too,” Graham says, taking a seat next to their brother.

            Dani groans and sinks into her pillows. “Was that really necessary?”

          “We were just talking about that time we were all trying to practice for soccer together while we had the flu,” says Kade, chuckles fading out.

            “Oh yeah! Didn’t you get your head stuck in the fence?” the younger of the brothers comments, remembering the tale. “And then that new kid ran over to help you. What was his name? Shane?”

            “Shawn,” the fireman corrects a little too quickly. There’s a slight tint of pink to his cheeks when he realizes this. “Uh, I…What I mean is—”

            “It’s fine; you too were practically inseparable for a few years there.”

            “Yeah.” He looks away and clears his throat.

            “How’s Chase? Is he well?” Dani asks quickly. From the tone of her voice, Graham can tell she’s been sitting on that question basically since he got to the room.

            “She ambushed me with the same question when I got here,” Kade laughs. “Told her she would have to wait for word from you.”

            “He’s fine. He’s finally stabilized. He hasn’t opened his optics yet, but Boulder thinks that if they put him in a stasis pod to finish up the healing process, he might at least be able to walk around slowly by the time you get home.” The engineer watches, assessing, as relief washes over his sister’s expression. “This is…more than just concern, isn’t it?”

            Automatically, she blushes. “Well, I mean, I’m glad to hear I didn’t get him killed.”

            His look grows more suspicious at the reaction. Kade seemingly picks up on his brother’s thought pattern. “Uh-huh. Right. You know, sis, you’ve been acting kind of funny lately. Like barely even mentioning your boyfriend?”

            Before she can protest, Graham cuts in, “And you were spending a lot of time with Chase before all this happened, and you get defensive whenever someone brings it up.” Come to think of it, it’s strange that he didn’t notice before. “You like him, don’t you? I mean, like, _really_ like him.”

            She scoffs, but the way she positions herself—despite some adjustment to account for her clavicle—screams defensive posture. “I do _not_.”

            Kade bursts out laughing and slaps his forehead. “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe I didn’t notice sooner! Dani totally has a thing for Chase!”

            Dani looks torn between mortification and murder. “Oh yeah? Well, the only way you would’ve figured it out is because _you_ have a ‘ _thing_ ’ for Heatwave!”

            The redhead chokes on his own laugher and stops. He splutters, “I don’t—but that’s not—I mean—Hayley—”

            “Please, you two have been dancing around each other for longer than Chase and I have,” she says, struggling to sit up. “The only reason you two haven’t been all over each other is probably because you’re too stubborn to tell each other how much mushy-gushy love you have for one another.”

            “That’s not—!” Kade growls, snorts, and knocks his chair backwards in his haste to stand. He jabs a finger in her direction, looking close to saying something, but nothing more comes. Instead, he snaps his jaw shut and storms out of the room.

            Graham puts the chair back upright with a sigh. When he looks back at his sister, there’s an entirely too smug look on her face. “You know, you should probably say something to Taylor if you’re not interested in him anymore.”

            The smile drops from her face quickly. “He visited a couple days ago. I did it then.” The admission doesn’t appear to be a particularly comfortable one for her.

            He beams at her for a moment, hoping it might be enough to offset the less pleasant emotions at least a little. “Good job. I’ll go see if I can talk to Kade.” The engineer stops in the doorway and turns back to look at his sister. “Oh, and…I think you should go for it, when you see Chase tomorrow.”

            Her cheeks redden again at the suggestion.

            As it turns out, he doesn’t get his chance to talk to his elder brother one-on-one until after their sister returns from the hospital anyway. He gets the chance to see his sister confess to Chase. He can’t hear it, and he’s too busy trying to find Kade to try to even if he wanted to eavesdrop on them, but he can see it happen, not to mention the sweet little kiss to the ‘Bot’s olfactory sensor that as his optics bugging out.

            He eventually finds Kade on the roof of the Firehouse. The fireman has his legs dangling over the ledge, and he’s staring out into the distance with a troubled expression. Graham approaches him cautiously. At first, he doesn’t even say anything; he just sits down quietly beside his brother, albeit a little further from the edge of the building.

            After enough time has passed, the elder Burns brother speaks of his own accord. “She’s right you know. Dani. I mean, partially. Yeah, I lo—uh, like Heatwave, as much as I’ve tried to tell myself I don’t. But it’s not just stubbornness that’s keeping us back. Actually, nothing’s keeping Heatwave back at all. He told me he’s in love with me no sweat. Well, besides the fact that giant robots don’t sweat, but that’s beside the point.”

            Graham sorts through the wall of information, finding what he thinks is the most important part. “So something is keeping you back from forming a relationship with him.”

            Kade gapes for a moment, but probably not from surprise. He thinks it must be something more like searching for the right words. “A pretty big something. Hayley. Unlike Dani, I didn’t just stop loving my girlfriend just because there’s a cool alien robot in the picture. And I’m not interested in being with both of them at once; that just isn’t my style.”

            The younger brother nods in understanding. He joins his brother in staring out at the horizon as though it might give him the answers to complex emotional matters. Oddly enough, it seems to work for him after only a few minutes.

            “Kade, I don’t want you putting this off until an accident makes the decision for you. I don’t want you to be like Dani and Chase and wait for near-death to make you face what you’re feeling. I know you probably don’t want my advice because I’m not exactly known for my long-lasting, happy romantic relationships,” he says, drawing a snort from his brother, “but I have one thing for you to consider.”

            “And that is?”

            “Can you see yourself telling Hayley about the Rescue Bots? About them being alive?” he asks. “Because if you’re serious about her, if you want to bring her into this family someday, that’s a pretty big secret to keep.”

            Kade keeps on staring out over Griffin Rock, abnormally quiet for himself. Slowly, his face takes on an expression of melancholic realization. “No, I don’t think I would.”

            Graham places a hand on his shoulder. “I think you have your answer, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the longest time, I couldn't decide whether I was going to have Kade and Heatwave together in the end or not, even as I was in the process of writing this story. This end-of-chapter scene, which came to me several chapters ago, is what finally decided things for me.


	29. Kiss Me Slowly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kade finally catches up.

            Getting to Chase’s level while she’s still injured is the hardest part of confessing. Dani ultimately has to ask Boulder for a boost up, then for some privacy. From there, it’s just a matter of asking, “Do you still have a crush on me? Because I think I’m falling for you.”

            The way the police-mech stutters in response is positively adorable. She finally gets a shocked, happy, “Yes” out of him. From there, it’s just a matter of getting him to lift her up to his face so she can kiss his olfactory sensor. His reaction to _that_ is even cuter than the stutter.

            In the days when they’re both still healing, cuddling is difficult. Dani wants to be near his face, but because their injuries are on the same side of their bodies, being on his uninjured shoulder is impossible for her and being the other shoulder is an obvious no-go. She settles for sitting on one of his legs, though that provides difficulties of its own.

            The hardest part about being affectionate with one another in the beginning, though, is having Heatwave in the room with them. He tries to be happy for them, but it’s pretty clear that something about it is upsetting him. It takes Dani what she feels is an embarrassing amount of time to figure out that it’s because Kade still hasn’t told him he likes him.

            “Would you excuse me for a moment, Chase?” she asks. She presses a kiss to one of his fingers before sliding down his leg. Almost the moment her feet touch the floor, she’s off in search of her eldest brother.

            She finds him pacing the living room upstairs. “And just how long were you planning to keep Heatwave pouting?” she huffs, putting her hands on her hips.

            “I wasn’t,” Kade says without pausing in his tracks.

            “Then why are you?”

            “I’m not _trying_ to. It’s just…not easy ending things with Hayley when I still care about her.” He finally stops and faces his sister. “Don’t tell me I need to. I already _know_. I’m just saying that it’s not easy on me.”

            Her anger fizzles to a low-level irritation, mostly overpowered by sympathy. “I know it’s not easy, but you have to do it. Would you rather leave Hayley hanging on, thinking things between the two of you are going somewhere?”

            He flinches in guilt. “No. Fine, you have a point. I’ll tell her today.”

~----------~

            Kade still finds himself pacing outside of Hayley’s door. He called beforehand to tell her he was coming over to talk, but she did warn him he might have to wait. He knows, yet he finds himself growing more anxious with each second that ticks by.

            The door opens at long last, and Hayley leans on the doorframe. “You wanted to talk to me?” she asks, although it sounds almost like a statement.

            “Hayley, I…” The words catch in his throat. This is the woman he liked for years before he ever got her to consider dating him. He’d longed for her. She’d become even more important to him as time went on. The idea of letting her go makes him ache. But he knows he has to do this—for Heatwave, for her, and for himself—as painful as it is. He forces the words out. “I think we should break up.”

            She looks relieved when he says it. There’s a hint of sorrow to it, but the relief overwhelms it. “Kade,” she replies, taking his hand, “thank you. I’ve been waiting for you to say that since your last visit.”

            “You…You have?” His heart is doing weird things in his chest. He can’t decide if he should be upset or pleased or angry or calm. Something about her aura leads him to stick to the last one.

            “It was kind of obvious that you really were in love with your friend you mentioned, even if you just didn’t know it yet,” she says. “I’m just glad you finally see it, too.”

            “I didn’t say—” His cheeks burn. Of course, this is Hayley. She’s even sharper than his family on these kinds of things. “Yeah, you’re right. I love him.” He squeezes her hand gently. “I meant what I said then, too. I still love you.”

            “And _I_ still love _you_ , but that doesn’t mean we should be together.” The botany-lover pulls him into a hug and kisses him on the cheek. “Thank you for being my Prince Charming while it lasted, Kade.”

            Warmth spreads through his chest at those words. Yeah, he can accept that. It’s nice that he could bring her some kind of happiness while they were together. “Hey, I’m sure you’ll find a new Prince Charming,” he says, pulling part of the way out of the hug. “Maybe Josh. At least then you know you wouldn’t have to cook.”

            Hayley laughs and pushes him away. “Maybe, or maybe not. I think I need a little time.”

~----------~

            Heatwave quirks an eyebrow when Dani suddenly ushers the other Rescue Bots out of the room. His silent question is answered by Kade clearing his throat as he walks closer. The mechs’ leader hadn’t heard his partner even enter the room, which is surprising from the determined stride the human uses.

            The fireman stops a few feet away from him and says, “You better kneel, because I am _not_ doing this with you towering over me.”

            “I tower over you even when I’m kneeling,” he rumbles back. He crouches down anyway, putting his face incredibly close to the human’s as a result. “If this is just a trick to get me to bow, I swear I will squirt you with my hose.”

            “It’s not a trick! Geez, the way you’re talking, you’d think my life’s goal is to humiliate you or something.”

            “Maybe not your life’s goal, but you won’t exactly pass up an opportunity. Especially if it feeds your ego.”

            “Come _on,_ that is a _massive_ exaggeration,” Kade protests. “Not everything is about making you look bad and myself look better; like that time with the—that’s not the point.”

            Heatwave snorts at what he assumes is his partner’s inability to come up with an example. “Oh yeah? Then what _is?_ ”

            “I’m not sure I want to say it anymore. You’ve ruined the moment. It was there; it was okay…Not perfect or anything, but when is it around here, you know what I mean? But now it’s gone.” Kade crosses his arms and turns away, sticking his nose up in the air as he does it.

            The triple-changer can feel a processor-ache forming at the man’s behavior. “What moment did I supposedly ruin? The right moment for you to be an annoying jerk? Because you seem to find _plenty_ of time for that.”

            “And _you_ find plenty of time to be a _stubborn_ jerk.”

            “I think you humans have a phrase for this…Something about pots and kettles?”

            “Yeah, well, if I’m the pot and you’re the kettle then—”

            “Kade, would you just say what you came in here to say already?” Heatwave demands.

            “Fine.” The redhead huffs a sigh, then mumbles something inaudibly.

            “What?” Considering the very short distance between the two of them and Cybertronians’ superior hearing, it’s kind of impressive that he managed to avoid being heard. Impressive and annoying, but impressive nonetheless. He repositions himself so he’s facing the human again.

            “I said I love you, okay!?” Kade practically shouts. His face turns bright red to the tips of his ears at the admission. “There you go,” he adds in more of a grumble. “Happy?”

            At first, Heatwave can’t believe his audials. He already knew the man was attracted to him, but he was starting to think for sure he would wait for the end of the world and not a moment sooner to say it. He had hoped otherwise, of course, but hope alone does not rule out the possibility of his audials playing tricks on him.

            When he’s certain the words were actually spoken, though, his spark begins pulsing and whirring with delight. He grins triumphantly. “Heh, took you long enough.”

            Kade punches his jaw ineffectually, not hard enough to hurt his hand or for the mech to feel it. “Jerk,” he says, but there’s a small smile tugging on the corner of his lip. “Do you accept my confession or not?”

            The triple-changer gives him a much more serious look before replying. “Kade, there’s a lot that I can’t offer you. We can’t have public dates, and we’re pretty limited when it comes to physical intimacy.”

            “I know. That hasn’t stopped Chase and Dani, has it?” He steps even closer into his partner’s space, bringing their faces to mere inches distance from each other. “All that is nice and all, but I don’t _need_ it. I just enjoy being around you, even when you’re being a jerk.”

            “Ditto.”

            That’s apparently all the incentive Kade needs to close the distance between them, resting his hands on Heatwave’s chin and pressing lips to lip-components. It’s a gesture the mech recognizes from Earth media and human couples, but he never understood the appeal until this moment, experiencing it for himself. His fingers come up to gently curl around his partner’s smaller back as he relaxes into the kiss.


	30. Closing Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." - Closing Time by Semisonic

            “How long has it been since we’ve had a cookout like this?” asks Chief Burns.

            “Two months, one week, three days, twenty-one hours, and seventeen minutes, although I assume you meant that rhetorically,” Doc Greene replies. He only realizes the last bit as he is speaking, but sometimes his mind gets away from him, metaphorically speaking. Numbers just come too easily to him sometimes.

            His friend does not seem to mind too terribly. “Only that long? It feels like years. I guess time just speeds by when you’re busy.”

            “Indeed it does,” the scientist concurs. “I feel as though I have missed a good number of developments myself.” He looks out at the rest of their patchwork family. Some of the present action is perfectly expected, such as Frankie and Cody chasing each other around and giggling or Graham and Boulder discussing a nature encyclopedia. However, the scene also provides glimpses of new developments: Dani using Chase as a perch while she chats with Blades and Kade pushing Heatwave’s grinning face away.

            “The heart—and the spark, from the look of things—can be taken to unexpected reactions, I guess,” the Chief says, placing a plate in front of his eldest child. “I suppose this just means I have two fewer children to press my wish of grandchildren onto.”

            Kade, Dani, and Graham laugh (although the younger of the two brothers appears slightly nervous at the notion, Doc Greene notes), but Chase looks between the humans present. “If you only mean ‘grandchildren’ in the most literal sense, then I concur. However, as we do not constitute a family in that strict sense, yet we consider each other such, then it is possible that you may have your wish regardless.”

            “Uh, what?” asks Kade, voicing (in the simplest manner possible) the thoughts of most of the others in the area.

            “It is correct that Cybertronians cannot reproduce in the manner that humans do, and we, thus, lack a direct equivalent to the human concept of ‘parents.’ It is further correct that the means by which new Cybertronian life is created is, at present, inoperable,” Chase explains. “Nevertheless, it is my aspiration that, should Cybertron be restored and the Allspark be returned to our home planet within my lifetime, I may become a mentor to a member of the next generation of law enforcement, thus becoming our species’ closest equivalent of a parent.”

            “Nope, still didn’t catch that,” the fireman says.

            “The closest thing to parents Cybertronians have is mentors. You could consider the mechs who harvest our protoforms parents, but they don’t raise us or help us learn,” Heatwave provides, a little grumpily. “Chase is saying he wants to raise a younger police-mech when Cybertron is restored from our war and can produce new life again.”

            “Why couldn’t he just say that?” Kade throws a look at his sister. “Hey sis, how do you feel about being a mommy to a cop car?”

            “Not sure, but as long as I’m not expected to pump four-thousand pounds of robot out of my body, it could be worse.”

            “Consider me intrigued,” Doc Greene comments, still focused primarily on Chase’s monologue. “How does Cybertronian reproduction work?”

            “Generally speaking, it begins with a surge of energy that releases new sparks from the Allspark, controlled partially by a computer system known as Vector Sigma—or so it is said. A spark is, upon emerging from the depths of our planet, joined with harvested living metal known as a protoform or with a pre-constructed frame. Over time, Cybertronians are given upgrades to their programming and outer plating.”

            “Fascinating! Is there a set time for each of the upgrades, or does it depend on the mech in question?”

            “It varies little between specific mechs of the same build. There is a wider variance between builds and the career path that a mech or set of mechs is being sent down, as well as how much mechs of their career path are needed at the time in which they are sparked.”

            “Youngling-hood tends to be rushed in any case,” Heatwave interjects. “The thing to remember is that Cybertronian younglings aren’t like human children. In our time, we were almost immediately set up with future careers based on our frame-types and temperaments. Our names aren’t bestowed; they’re written in our coding and easily rewritten to fit a personality or physical change.”

            Evidently, the topic is a far more unpleasant one for the triple-changer than it is for his SIC. The scientist knows when to take a hint and change the subject. “So, I think I may have found a solution to Graham’s cat allergy problem when dealing with Mister Pettypaws.”

            “You can cure my allergy?” Graham asks as burgers are placed in front of both of them.

            “No, but I believe I have a temporary fix: wearing a surgical mask.”

            That earns a chuckle from the engineer. “I actually should have thought of that sooner. Guess I’m just used to Kade and Heatwave handling that stuff.”

            The evening passes with much laughter and good food. Along the way, Doc Greene gets some genuine inspirations for inventions, like mood-responsive hair dye. Hours pass, and the sky begins to grow dark, and the scientist can’t put off getting his daughter home for much longer. “Thank you for having us, Chief Burns.”

            “Thank you for stopping by,” he replies.

            Graham puts a hand on the scientists shoulder, stopping him from leaving. “Wait, Doc, one last thing before you go. Boulder and I have been looking at a lot of the tech involved in the latest debacle.”

            “We think someone, with Evan’s and Myles’ help, may have figured out how to combine Cybertronian technology with the mind-control phones from before,” Boulder fills in, crouching down. “Imperfectly, but they may have a major start on it, at least. We want a second—er, third—opinion on our hypothesis.”

            They hand Doc Greene the appropriate tech for examination, and he nods. “I’ll see what I can figure out.” As he pockets the devices, he has to wonder why anyone would risk a fight against the Rescue Bots to test incomplete tech.

~----------~

            “Yes, sweetie, the dirty vagrant brothers are all cleared out of our space. The house is being scrubbed inch by inch, so you won’t have to smell them when you get home from Milan. I’ll see you very soon.” She hangs up without a goodbye. The word is rarely said in their family.

            There’s little else she can do but sigh in irritation at the twins’ failure. She should have known that no one so immature and impetuous would prove a creditable ally, regardless of their technical skill. Evan and Myles share her appreciation of profit, but lack her practical mind. They’re too much chaos and carnage. At least they know how to keep their mouths shut.

            Still, Ms. Pynch supposes that their contributions have at least proven useful. She can cut her losses and their “business deal” and still reap the rewards of their hard work: the blueprints for one extraordinarily powerful plasma gun and the first step into a new wave of highly advanced technology. Those robots—if they really _are_ robots, which she has the creeping suspicion they aren’t—will be hers.

            The gold under Griffin Rock will be hers if she has to destroy half the island to do it. Of course, it would be preferable to avoid such an action. It would be such a waste of island property and labor resources, not to mention the blow her reputation would be likely to sustain. Business can be such an appearance-driven thing.

            Now, the only question that remains is who she should pass off the devices to for development. It needs to be someone who won’t ask too many “why”s, but won’t go running off on their own directives before the job can be done _right_.

            If she can’t have all the robots at once, she thinks she’ll take the blue one first. It’s such a nice color, and she must wonder what Chief Burns would be like without his machine.


End file.
